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PRESENTED BY 



THE BOY'S BOOK OF PIONEERS 




*'The young missionary-doctor had to go forth, fearlessly and alone, to plead 
with twenty thousand Kurds " {see p. 204) 



THE BOY'S BOOK OF 

PIONEERS 



BY 

ERIC WOOD 



WITH FOUR COLOUR PLATES AND FOUR 
FULL-FAGE BLACK-AND-WHITE ILLUSTRATIONS 



NEW YORK 

FUNK AND WAGNALLS COMPANY 



C^^lC^^ 






/LP.. .... 



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:o Contents 

PAGE 

'' The Trapper as Pioneer . . . . i 

The Wild West was discovered by Radisson, whose 
achievements for many years remained unknown. 

The Romance of the Coppermine River . . 17 

How Samuel Hearne went seeking a copper field' 
— and found a river. 

To the Rockies and Beyond .... 37 

There is no more thrilling story than that of the 
men who braved the icy cold of the North, the bitter 
Indian foes, in order to get furs and blaze the trail 
from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Here is the story of 
Alexander Mackenzie. 

Pioneers of Science 51 

Simpson, Davy, and a host of others have explored 
the mysteries of science, often at as much danger as 
the men who went into the wild places of the earth and 
faced death in a hundred forms. 

The Romance of the Niger .... 59 

The perils and plucky perseverance of Mungo Park 
and others. 

The White Rajah y$ 

The pioneer work of Sir James Brooke, of Sarawak. 

, The Missionary as a Pioneer . . . loi 

A missionary, a man of God, David Livingstone, 
besides carrying his good news to ignorant savages at 
the risk of his life, pioneered the unknown heart of 
the Dark Continent, and won lasting fame. 



viii Contents 

PAGE 

The Mystery River of Africa . . .117 

The wonderful river of Africa kept its secret for 
many a year. Men sought its source — discovered it, 
only to be told that they were wrong when some other 
explorer came back with news. But at last it was 
known, this secret of the ages, and to Speke and 
Grant belongs the credit of revealing it to the world. ) 

Baker at Albert Edward .... 130 

How the work of Speke and Grant was carried to 
completion. 

The Man Who Walked Across Africa . . 144 

The story of Cameron's stupendous 3,000 mile 
journey on foot. 

Stanley's Congo Journey .... 162 

The greatest work of the man who found Living- 
stone; the story of a wonderful journey through the 
heart of Africa, and down the mighty Congo. 

Pioneers of the Air . . . . . 184 

How man conquered the air is amazing — the most 
thrilling of all the stories of pioneers. 

A Journey towards Lhasa .... 204 

Not to men alone is all the glory of pioneering, for 
women have entered the arena of adventure and have 
fought till they won through — or died. 

Pioneers of Liberty 215 

Some men have gone forth and opened up new worlds 
to conquer, new worlds for commerce ; and yet others 
have opened up new worlds to those who sat prisoners 
to slavery of every kind ; the liberators are true pioneers. 

Opening Up the Great Rivers of Australia . 232 

Here and there along the coasts of the Island Con- 
tinent colonies had been established ; but the vast 
interior was a sealed book. What lay hidden there ? 
Brave, intrepid men set their faces towards the mystery, 
and wrested its secrets. 

The Tragedy of Burke and Wills . . 244 

The story of the ill-fated expedition through the 
heart of Australia. 



Contents ix 

PAGE 

Pioneering for a Trade Route . . . 255 

Even to-day the great Land of the Yellow Man is 
by no means wholly known to Europeans, despite the 
labours of a hundred men who dared the perils of the 
unknown and encountered and overcame — sometimes 
— the bitter hostility of the mandarins. 

The Railwayman as Pioneer .... 264 

All over the world the railwaymen have gone and 
blazed a steel trail through virgin forest, snow-capped 
mountains, and untrodden deserts. Here are the stories 
of the C.P.R. and the Uganda Railway. 

The Discovery of the Poles .... 284 

Science, as much as anything else, sent men forth 
into the ice regions to find out what lay beyond the open 
sea, and of all the stories of explorers none is so tragic 
as that which tells of the efforts of men to get " farthest 
North " and " farthest South." 

El Dorado 301 

The gold rushes of the different times furnish a 
multitude of stories of men who blazed the trail. 



List of Illustrations 

COLOUR PLATES 

" The young missionary-doctor had to go forth, fear- 
less AND ALONE, TO PLEAD WITH TWENTY THOUSAND 

Kurds " ...... Frontispiece 

FACING FAOB 

A Combat in Mid-air between a British Aeroplane 

AND A German Zeppelin . . . . . ig6 

" Night after night the man-eaters would raid the 

CAMP " . . . . . . . . . 2 76 

The " Discovery," Captain Scott's Ship, imprisoned 

IN the Ice ........ 288 



BLACK-AND-WHITE ILLUSTRATIONS 

" Groseillers placed him between two sleighs, and 

then went off " . . . . . . .16 

" The whites put up a valiant fight " . . '72 

How Stanley found Livingstone in the Heart of 

Africa ......... 112 

The Death of John Brown, a Pioneer for Liberty . 224 



THE BOY'S BOOK OF PIONEERS 



THE TRAPPER AS PIONEER 

The Work of Pierre Radisson, the French-Canadian, 
who opened up the Far West 

THE great west and north-west of North America 
has always had a fascination for people ; it would 
seem to be the happy hunting ground of our dreams — 
the place where a man may live in touch with wild 
Nature, and feel the lash of the wind, the keen smack 
of the icy air — where real, hard, virile life is to be 
found and lived. Who of us has not revelled in the 
stories of the old-time pioneers of the west? Well, 
here is the story of one of those men — the first white 
man to venture across into the great unknown. 

The early history of Pierre Radisson, the French- 
Canadian who opened up the west, may be summed 
up as follows : When but just over sixteen years of age, 
he left the Fort at Three Rivers, on the north bank of 
the St. Lawrence, on a hunting jaunt wdth a couple of 
young friends, and was captured by Iroquois and 
carried inland to the Mohawk country. He was adopted 
into the tribe of Mohawks, and became a good hunter 
whilst dwelling amongst them. Then, one night, in 
company with another captive, he made his escape, and 
set off towards Three Rivers, only to be captured when 
a day's journey off, and but for the intervention of the 
family which had adopted him he would have been put 
to a horrible death ; as it was, he suffered untold agonies 

B 



2 The Boy's Book of Pioneers 

of torture before he was allowed to go free amongst the 
tribe. 

Then followed months of sojourn with the Mo- 
hawks. Radisson loved the free, wild life of the open 
spaces, gloried in the hunting; willy-nilly, he went 
with the Indians on marauding parties, and on one 
occasion could have run away with some Dutch settlers 
but for the fact that he had pledged his word to return. 
Then, nearly two years after that day on which he had 
been first captured, he made a bid for freedom. For a 
day and a night, on feet seemingly winged, he flew 
through the forests towards the Dutch station at 
Orange, fearful lest the braves should discover his 
absence and hurry off in pursuit, to drag him back to 
barbarism. Fortunately, he reached Orange in safety; 
shipped from there to New York, by way of the Hud- 
son, and from there made his way over to Europe, 
reaching Rochelle in 1654, only to leave almost im- 
mediately and take ship to the St. Lawrence. He went 
up the river with a band of Algonquin Indians, who 
were out warring against the Mohawks, and in May, 
1654, was back at Three Rivers. 

Into a couple of years this boy of seventeen had 
packed enough adventure to last most men a lifetime, 
and he had tasted the sweets (often mixed wirh the 
bitters) of the solitudes, and when, in 1656, a number of 
Frenchmen went west to Onondaga to a settlement 
made there by the French colonists, Radisson went too. 

That, the second voyage by young Radisson, was a 
tragic one. The facts of the matter were that the 
Iroquois had concluded a peace with the settlers in the 
east; but they played traitor, for, when the settlers 
were going west, they got upon the warpath at Lake 
St. Louis. In the party were about a hundred Huron 
Christians, with whom the Iroquois dashed off across 
the lake, leaving the white men behind. The Jesuit 



The Trapper as Pioneer 3 

Father Ragueneau and half a dozen other Frenchmen, 
including Radisson, slipped after them in the leaky 
canoe that had been left, and overtook them. The crafty 
Indians professed friendliness, and the red men and 
white men fraternised together that night. Next day 
the Iroquois separated the white men, putting them in 
different canoes, the braves in certain of the boats 
landing presently as if bent on hunting. Actually, a 
deep-laid plot was in the working : the white men and 
the Hurons were afloat on the lake while the Iroquois 
braves were on land, awaiting the appointed time. It 
came with startling suddenness. As the canoe in which 
Radisson was, with a Huron, went ashore, the latter 
was brained by an Iroquois; simultaneously, the other 
Hurons were landing, and were instantly set upon by 
the braves. There ensued a terrific fight, in which the 
Hurons would have been the victors but for an ambush 
into which they were at last driven. Every male Huron 
was killed in that battle, and the women and children, 
filled with terror, herded together to await judgment. 

What might have happened it is impossible to say; 
but what did happen is an epic of the wilds. The 
fearless Jesuit Father, while the victors were celebrating 
their triumph, took three wampum belts— which are re- 
garded as symbols of peace by the Indians — and strode 
fearlessly into the dancing crowd of braves. Weeping, 
he stood before them, and then anger overcame his 
grief : he burst forth into a torrent of words. No 
weeping weakling this, not merely a priest pleading 
for peace, but a real man, strong and heroic, demanding 
honesty. With fine scorn he lashed these treacherous 
Iroquois, knowing all the time that a false move would 
send them into a frenzy of battle-fever in which every- 
thing withstanding them would go under. He flung 
a wampum belt at the chief, asking for a vow that 
the massacre should stop, and doing the same with the 



4 The Boy's Book of Pioneers 

other two, demanded that the promise made to lead the 
party to the settlement be kept, and that the lives of the 
Frenchmen should be sacred. 

Never had those Iroquois been bearded in such a 
way : the very fearlessness of the priest gave them 
pause, and when the chief tried to bluster, Ragueneau 
thrust the lie down his throat, and triumphed. 

Onondaga was reached in due course, although not 
before dreadful things had been done to the Huron 
women and children, which the Frenchmen had been 
unable to stop. Their troubles were not over when they 
arrived at Onondaga — rather, they had begun, for the 
Mohawk Confederation had resolved to wipe out -the 
whole settlement. 

Hundreds of them gathered outside the little fort, 
shaking their tomahawks, screaming their war-cries, 
yet not attempting to rush the place, for the simple 
reason that away at Quebec hostages had been taken. 
But, all that winter, a siege was kept on Onondaga, 
and the settlers, realising the serious state of affairs, 
sent messengers to Quebec for assistance. Only by the 
merest luck did those messengers get through ; but no 
one reached Onondaga from Quebec, for those who 
attempted to get through were captured. 

Fortunately for everyone concerned, Radisson's 
Indian father was amongst the besiegers, and Radisson 
himself was able to move freely amongst the Mohawks. 
This meant that the white men learnt many things of 
use to them — though nothing was of much use, seeing 
that the river Was fast frozen and escape was impossible 
till the spring. 

Then came the day when the Frenchmen learnt that 
the Mohawks had resolved to rush the fort and kill half 
the settlers, holding the others as hostages against their 
own kin at Quebec. Great activity prevailed in the 
fort henceforth; large flat-bottomed boats were secretly 



The Trapper as Pioneer 5 

built, but the Mohawks got wind of something being 
afoot, and greater care had to be exercised. The Mo- 
hawks waited for the time when the white men should 
sally forth down the river; they laid ambushes into 
which the settlers must go on their journey. 

All this Radisson knew ; and he knew more than 
this. His life amongst the Indians had taught him 
many things. One of the superstitions of the Mohawks 
was that all food placed before them must be eaten, on 
pain of punishment by the gods. Radisson played 
upon this. He dreamed a dream in which he was 
told that the white men must give a great feast to the 
red men. He told his Indian father of this dream; 
the Iroquois passed the news on, and a night was ap- 
pointed for the feast. Great joy reigned in the camp 
of the besiegers, who were not averse to eating their 
enemies' food. Every Mohawk in the neighbourhood 
gathered outside the fort, where they were kept in 
luscious anticipation for a couple of days, during which 
preparations were made — preparations fuller than they 
supposed I While some of the Frenchmen entertained 
the braves outside, and kept them from too much peep- 
ing and prying, others inside were killing all the live- 
stock, except one pig, a few hens and the dogs ; and 
the remainder were filling the now finished flat boats 
with stores and ammunition. Radisson's idea was to 
steal away while the Mohawks were sleeping the sleep 
of gorged men I 

When everything was ready for the escape, a huge 
fire was built; every musical instrument in the fort 
joined in a noise which wakened the echoes in the 
surrounding forest; the gates of the outer enclosure 
were swung open, and hundreds of Mohawks swarmed 
in to the feast. And what a feast that was I Every 
Frenchman toiled at his vocation of waiting upon red 
warriors whom they knew were but waiting to scalp 



6 The Boy's Book of Pioneers 

them. True to their rite, the Indians ate and ate as 
fast as the white men could place the food before them, 
and never a brave found nothing in front of him. Eat, 
eat, eat, until every man was full to repletion, and heavy 
with sleep ! It is suggested that Radisson had taken 
the precaution of drugging the food. Drugged or not, 
they slept like logs, and Radisson, whose faith in his 
plan had been vindicated, knew that everything was 
ready for the escape. 

He had to have his little joke, this youth barely 
out of his teens. 

In the outer enclosure lay the inert Indians, who 
later on would wake, and pull the bell rope; to this 
rope Radisson had the pig attached, so that when the 
rope was pulled the animal would move about and the 
natives imagine that it was the sentry going his rounds ! 
It seems a remarkable thing that such a stratagem 
should succeed; remarkable, too, that on so simple a 
thing so much should depend. But it is a fact, never- 
theless, and it worked wonderfully well. Dummies of 
men were placed here and there in the fort, so that 
spies, clambering up the palisades, might be deceived 
into thinking ihe Frenchmen still there. 

And then the boats were pushed out on to the river, 
everyone took his appointed place, and, in the dead of 
night, the little band of white men set off down the 
river. It was dark — pitch black; it was sleeting; the 
river was swift running now that the ice had melted; 
but, dangerous though the going was, it was less 
dangerous than being herded up in the little fort, wait- 
ing for the time that would certainly have come when 
the Mohawks would have had them in their grip. 

For a fortnight they swept down river, sometimes 
having to portage their goods round falls, often having 
to delay owing to the ice-packs on the river and Lake 
Ontario. Hardy, inflexible, these white men held on 



The Trapper as Pioneer 7 

until they came to Montreal, thence going to Quebec, 
safe through the ruse of the wily Radisson. 

It was only later that they learnt how right Radisson 
had been : the gorged warriors had slept on until the 
effects of their gluttony had gone, and then, waking 
up, had pulled the bell rope — the pig-sentry and the 
dummies kept them deceived for over a week ! They 
could hear the dogs in the kennels barking, the chickens 
crowing, and imagined that all was right, until at last 
they became suspicious, as no white men came out of 
the fort as heretofore. Then, over the palisades they 
swarmed, and found they had been tricked. After the 
fugitives went a couple of hundred braves, but the bad 
weather made it impossible for them to catch up. 
Radisson had bluffed them ! 

After such experiences most youngsters would have 
had enough of life in the wilds, but Radisson, with the 
spirit of the true pioneer, and the urge to know throb- 
bing through him, very soon embarked on a new 
venture — the quest of the great unknown beyond the 
Sault River. 

There happened to be an expedition starting from 
Montreal, consisting of a large number of Algonquin 
Indians, thirty Frenchmen, and a couple of priests — 
always, the men of the church went with the men of 
trade; and M^dard Chouart Groseillers, Radisson's 
brother-in-law, a man who had taken part in an ill- 
fated expedition some time previously. The stories told 
by Indians of vast lands lying in the west, lakes and 
rivers unknown to white men, hunting grounds full of 
animals, a great sea that led across the world — all these 
fired the imagination of Groseillers, and, through him, 
Radisson. 

Things happened quickly, dramatically. The Mo- 
hawks, bitter enemies of white men and Algonquins, 
ambushed the expedition on the third day ; there was a 



8 The Boy's Book of Pioneers 

stiff fight, a barricading in the woods when the travellers 
managed to get ashore through the musket fire of the 
concealed Mohawks. It was a gory scrap, and the 
Frenchmen had enough of it very soon : they went back 
to Montreal — all except Groseillers and Radisson, who 
remained with the Algonquins and went cautiously up 
the river by night for a thousand miles until they came 
to Lake Nipissing, thence on to Lake Huron. Not an 
easy journey by any means; a stiff paddle against 
stream all the time, much portaging of canoes over 
rapids, and little food to work on, because, although 
there was food to be had in the forests, the proximity 
of Mohawks rendered it dangerous to shoot. 

From Huron to Green Bay, in Lake Michigan, and 
there began the most remarkable series of events in this 
third voyage of the explorers. Before them lay the 
great west; around them were tribes they did not 
know, and the Mohawks, whom they did know, were 
antagonistic, and were even then on the warpath. 
Radisson took stern measures against them : he fell 
upon the Indians suddenly, with a backing of Algon- 
quins, and settled their account, which brought the 
white men into high repute with their red friends. 

This was in 1658. The beginning of the next year 
saw Radisson and Groseillers looking at the Upper 
Mississippi : farthest west till then. Then they went on 
to the Missouri — alone, because no Indians would ac- 
company them in face of the possible dangers; they 
swept round from south to north-east up to Lake 
Superior, and then to the now Minnesota district. 
Months they had spent in this work, discovering the 
south-west, gathering information of the tribes — Sioux, 
Crees, Mascoutins, and others — making friends with 
most, and leading some of them in battle against un- 
friendly natives. 

Spring and summer were gone by before all this was 



The Trapper as Pioneer 9 

achieved, and then a stiff winter set in, stiff enough to 
keep even acclimatised men in their huts ; but Radisson 
went with the Crees on a hunting expedition — went 
because the way lay straight for the north-west. The 
Manitoba of to-day was then a dreary waste of prairie 
and forest, and the route thither in that winter of long 
ago was snow-covered, ice-bound; but, snow-shoed, 
Radisson and his red men pushed on as far as they 
could until the spring thaws came and clogged them. 
Radisson gave up hope of reaching the North Sea 
(Hudson Bay), and the Indians built canoes and pad- 
dled back, reaching the Green Bay in Michigan in time 
to hear the war-cries of the Mohawks. 

Again the intrepid Radisson and Groseillers showed 
of what stuff they were made : their Indian friends 
would have fled, but the Frenchmen jeered at that, 
whipped them with scorn — shamed them into going up 
to Quebec with the white men, despite all the Mohawks 
in the country. Five hundred natives swept their pelt- 
laden canoes through the waters of Michigan, Huron, 
Erie, and Ottawa ; and Mohawks in ambush at ideal 
spots found all their plans knocked on the head by the 
initiative of the Frenchmen, who, warned by their 
scouts, were ready, and without beating about the bush, 
went straight at them, and beat them. At one place, the 
Long Sault Rapids, the enemy lurked in the woods 
fringing the banks. Radisson led an army of warriors 
right into their fortified camp, cleared them out in 
gallant style, and then shot the rapids, and went on un- 
molested to Quebec, with a fine collection of furs, thence 
to Three Rivers. 

That cargo of furs was the making of New France 
that season, for, otherwise, no ships would have been 
able to go to France carrying the treasures of the wilds ; 
and yet, when Radisson and Groseillers wanted to set 
forth again, they had to slink off like thieves in the 



10 The Boy's Book of Pioneers 

night I for their compatriots were jealous of their 
achievements, especially of the fact that the two ex- 
plorers had learnt that the Bay of the North was 
approachable by land. 

The authorities sent an expedition to steal a march 
on Radisson; it failed. 

Then Radisson endeavoured to obtain a licence to 
trade, intending to go to the north. The Governor of 
New France would grant the licence only on condition 
(amongst other restrictions) that he should have half 
shares in the proceeds. This the explorers refused in- 
dignantly, and the result was that the governor forbade 
them to leave Three Rivers without his permission. 
The penalty for daring to go fur-trading without a 
licence was imprisonment, the galleys, or death ! 

However, when an Indian party came down the St. 
Lawrence in quest of Radisson and his comrade, the 
two explorers decided to go, governor or no governor. 
They told His Excellency that they intended to go. 
His answer was a command to the Indians to stay where 
they were. What happened? The Indians took no 
notice of the governor. Radisson, Groseillers and a 
friend named Larivi^re crept out of the fort at Three 
Rivers one dark night in August and embarked on a 
skiff, which they paddled swiftly up river to where the 
Indians had gone to await them. The natives, however, 
had passed on ; the explorers went after them, and 
eventually caught them up. They swept past Montreal 
at night, had some narrow scrapes with hostile Mo- 
hawks; in one place, in fact, Radisson's Indians, 
scared for their lives at the prospect of being attacked, 
carried their canoes in terror through the forest. Fear 
lent wings to their feet, and the white men had great 
difficulty in keeping up. Poor Larivi^re got far behind, 
and had to be abandoned ; he was picked up a fortnight 
later by French hunters, wellnigh starved to death. 



The Trapper as Pioneer ii 

When he arrived at Three Rivers the governor cast him 
into prison for disobeying orders, and the settlers 
promptly broke the prison open and set the man free. 

Radisson had been loath to leave Lariviere, but to 
have gone back in search of him would have meant the 
breakdown of all their plans : the Indians positively 
refused to wait for them if they turned back, and that 
would have been disastrous. 

So, having reached the river again by the round- 
about way that enabled them to avoid the Iroquois, the 
explorers and their guides went up the river, later to 
join another band of natives from the Upper Country. 
The force now numbered fourteen canoes and Radis- 
son 's skiff, and the reinforcements were much appreci- 
ated, and got to work almost immediately, for, while 
a portage was in progress, Iroquois, who had set an 
ambush at the spot, attacked the party. 

Radisson went for those enemies. He made his own 
Indians shield themselves in mat and hide bucklers, and 
furnish themselves with battering-rams of quickly felled 
trees, and then, with a yell, he led them at the Iroquois' 
barricade. In the face of heavy fire they swept for- 
ward, battered a breach in the fort, and then — were in ! 
Radisson discovered that with the enemy were some 
French hunters — renegades, but even they could not 
hold back the fierce attack of Radisson 's men, who 
seemed about to carry everything before them, when 
the Iroquois threw wampum belts to them — sign that 
they wished for peace ! 

Radisson called his men off, not at all displeased at 
the turn of events; but when, next morning, his Indians 
went forward to arrange terms of peace, they discovered 
that the enemy had fled. 

So far, so good, and northward again went the ex- 
plorers, and that very day Radisson's advance guard, 
in the woods near the water side, ran into the Iroquois 



12 The Boy's Book of Pioneers 

whom they had defeated the night before. Off like the 
wind for their canoes went the Iroquois, leaving their 
pelts behind them, while Radisson's scouts came run- 
ning towards him with the news. Radisson and the 
canoes with him sought to cut off the retreat of the 
Iroquois, who had to abandon their boats and swim for 
the opposite shore. Here they barricaded themselves 
lower down, and when Radisson went on, the gauntlet 
had to be run. Only one man was lost, fortunately, 
but Radisson decided to take full vengeance, and also to 
strike terror into the foe, so that they should not dog 
the party all the way. When night fell the canoes 
were run ashore, and the men slunk through the forest 
towards the Iroquois' fort. Radisson pitched into it a 
barrel of gunpowder, with, a fuse attached; there was 
the roar of an explosion, and, almost simultaneously, 
the crack of the enemies' fire. Three men fell dead, 
but Radisson, slinking through the darkness, carrying 
a powder-filled bole of a birch tree, set fire to the fort. 
His men followed him, shouting their battle-cries. 
Pandemonium reigned ; death chants dirged through 
the air above the noise of musketry and the crash of 
hatchets, while the blazing fort gave fit setting to the 
scene. And, just when it seemed that Radisson would 
be completely victorious and the Iroquois wiped out, 
the elements came to the aid of the enemy : a great 
storm swept down upon the place, put the fire out, and, 
in the confusion that ensued, the remaining Iroquois 
escaped into the forest. 

It was a fine victory, nevertheless, and would have a 
great effect upon the Iroquois in the future. Thinking 
he had taught them enough, Radisson next day, when 
he ran into another band, slipped off during the night 
and paddled and portaged for three days and four 
nights without staying to light a fire until Lake Nipis- 
sing was reached; here physical exhaustion made it im- 



The Trapper as Pioneer 13 

possible to proceed any farther until after a good rest. 
They had hidden their trail wherever possible in their 
portages, except for bloodstains from their cut feet; 
their moccasins were in shreds through hard going over 
rocks. Where it could be done, they had passed over 
rapids by hauling their canoes through the water at the 
edge, they themselves wading in the river, so that trail- 
ing Indians might be deceived. 

This was in September. In October the explorers 
were at Lake Superior. They passed along its south 
shore, then up the west and along the north. Then 
they landed and went north-west, to Cree encamp- 
ments. They made friends with these Indians, who 
volunteered to guide them to the land of the Assini- 
boines, farther north-west. The only trouble was that 
the frost had set in, the rivers were unnavigable, and 
land travelling was not possible, because there was no 
snow to enable them to go on snowshoes, taking their 
trade goods with them. Radisson solved that problem 
by sending the Crees off to their homes to fetch slaves to 
carry his goods, he and Groseillers remaining behind, 
alone in the vast wilds of the north-west. 

And, on the bank of a river, these two white men 
toiled and moiled at building with their own hands the 
first fur station in the north-west. They felled trees, 
barked them, built their fort, roofed it with branches, 
made rough furniture for their use, sentinelled it against 
foes by hidden cords bearing bells, and settled down to 
await the return of the Crees. 

Two men in a fort thousands of miles from civilisa- 
tion, with a potential enemy in every Indian in the land 
round about ! Many a time did the sentinel-bells tinkle 
in the night ; while in the day Indians approached and 
looked in amazement at the white men who dared keep 
lonely vigil there. All sorts of devices did they use to 
mystify the Indians, who came to look upon them as 



14 The Boy's Book of Pioneers 

men of magical powers, and dare not attack, even 
though they knew that somewhere they would be able 
to find a,rms and powder — ^the things the red men 
longed for most. The explorers had cached most of 
their precious weapons and goods, however, so that 
nothing was visible; and never an Indian was allowed 
inside the fort — the outpost of civilisation. 

At last the Crees came — four hundred of them — to 
take the white men into the depths of the north-west, 
and after several days of travelling by land and river, 
the Cree lodges were reached, and Radisson and his 
companion spent a stern winter there. It was a winter 
of death : starvation stared the Crees in the face — 
hundreds of them died before the spring came and set 
the rivers free and brought the game back to the woods ; 
but even then food was not plentiful, and when two 
Sioux Indians came to ask Radisson to visit their 
lodges the explorer had to steal their dog to provide 
food for starving Crees. The Sioux, when they heard 
the plight of the white men and their friends, sent food, 
the warriors came, and friendship was sworn between 
the French and the Sioux. Then, on to the Sioux 
nation, far west of the Mississippi ; from there, back to 
the lonely fort they had built, and then northward to the 
rendezvous of the Crees, who were going to the Bay of 
the North — the lodestone of Radisson 's ambition. 

Alone the white men went, dragging their sleighs, 
loaded heavily with pelts. And what a going that 
was ! Groseillers, older than Radisson, had to re- 
linquish his sleigh to the latter, because it was heavier 
and he could not cope with it. The ice on the lakes 
broke ever and anon and precipitated them into the cold 
waters. At one place, when twelve miles from the 
shore, this happened, and when Radisson had freed 
himself he discovered that he was so severely strained 
that he could not proceed. He knew that Groseillers 



The Trapper as Pioneer 15 

must go on alone, while he remained there in the keep- 
ing of Providence. Groseillers placed him between the 
two sleighs, covered him with a cloak, and then went 
off as quickly as he could seeking the Crees — and help. 

When the Indians arrived Radisson was in a bad 
way, but they got him to the shore at the cost of much 
agony. For over a week he lay in excruciating pain. 
Yet, when the Crees were ready to go north to the 
bay, his indomitable will came to his aid, and he went 
with them, although every step was purgatory, and two 
days' marching found him unable to move. 

He was abandoned on the trail, for the Crees had to 
push northward. They left him a small supply of food, 
but he had no gun, no hatchet — nothing to protect him- 
self with. He rested awhile, then took up the trail of 
the Crees, and held on for five days, came across an 
uninhabited wigwam, built a fire to keep off wild 
animals, crawled inside to take a well-earned sleep, 
and during the night the wigwam caught fire. . . . 
Radisson managed to crawl out into the night, shiver- 
ing, almost exhausted, hungry, and half-clothed. 

A bright prospect . . . for the night was hideous 
with the howls of a wolf-pack, or so he thought; but 
when the fingers of the dawn crept up the sky, 
Radisson, almost at the last lap, could have wept with 
joy at the sight of Indians who, it turned out, had 
raised the wolf-cry. Groseillers, on a hunting trip with 
other Crees, had heard of his plight, and had sent the 
Indians to find him. 

The explorer was soon in a Cree encampment, and, 
to his delight, found that these Indians were also per- 
paring to go north to the great bay. He went with 
them down the rivers which flowed to the north, and, 
after a hazardous journey, reached "a deep bay." 

It was the great Bay of the North — the sea he had 
dreamed of reaching and had at last reached. Many 



i6 The Boy's Book of Pioneers 

discussions have taken place as to whether it was James 
Bay or Hudson Bay he referred to in his writings : the 
fact does not matter at all. He peached the water in 
the north, the first white man to do so overland. 

He spent the winter on the bay, and in the spring 
of 1663 was back at the Sault, with seven hundred 
Indians and a rich harvest of pelts. Four hundred 
Indians went back from the Sault; the rest continued 
with Radisson and Groseillers to Montreal, where the 
explorers received an enthusiastic welcome. 

But at Quebec the governor was furious, both at 
the success of the explorers and the failure of his own 
attempts to find the Hudson Bay route. He clapped 
them in prison for going forth without permission, 
fined them fifty thousand dollars, took another seventy 
thousand dollars as tax (one-fourth was by legal right 
the property of the revenue), and left the hard-working 
traders twenty thousand dollars as their share ! 

There the story of Radisson and Groseillers ends, 
so far as we are concerned, except that we must say 
that the injustice meted out to them rankled. They 
endeavoured to get restitution, but failed, and then 
transferred their allegiance from France to England, 
and the outcome of their efforts was the founding, in 
1670, of the Hudson's Bay Company. Groseillers 
founded the first station, Radisson the second, on the 
Bay, which they reached by sea. Yet Radisson did not 
find his new masters much better than the old, and he 
once more went back to France and worked against the 
Hudson's Bay Company, only to be ill-treated by the 
French, whom again he left for England. He made 
the rough ways smooth for the company by reason 
of his influence with the Indians, and he died in 
poverty. . . . 

But he died rich in the knowledge that he had blazed 
the trail that led to the great north-west. 




" Groseillcrs placed him between the two sleighs, and then went oflF" 

{see p. 15) 



THE ROMANCE OF THE COPPERMINE 

RIVER 

How Samuel Hearne Went Seeking a Copper Field 

ONE would have thought that the discoveries of 
Radisson would have given an impetus to the 
Hudson's Bay Company's endeavours in exploring the 
lands whence came their rich hauls of peltries, but the 
fact is little was done, simply because there seemed 
small need to do anything. 

Among the most important of the French explorers 
was Varennes de la Verendrye, who went on one of 
those expeditions so often undertaken by pioneers : an 
expedition designed to find one thing, but resulting in 
another. Verendrye sought the western sea; what he 
actually discovered were the Rocky Mountains and the 
Saskatchewan River, and, following his explorations, 
the French fur traders established such good relations 
with the Indians that the Hudson's Bay Company's 
factors, who till then had been content to sit in their 
posts and wait for the break-up of the ice which enabled 
the Indians to bring in the peltries, found fewer bands 
of Indians troubling to come. The French, alert to 
business, had set up their stockaded forts at many places 
inland, while the Hudson Bay people were content to 
hover around the shores of the great bay. 

Business was lagging. 

And shareholders at home, and also folk with axes 
to grind, because they resented the monopoly that had 
been given the company, began to compare the achieve- 
ments of the French traders with those of the English. 
True, Henry the Elder had blazed a long and fairly 
c 17 



i8 The Boy's Book of Pioneers 

wide trail beyond Lake Superior, but he was not 
attached to the company; and many other free-lance 
traders and pioneers had revealed large tracts of 
country. But the company had done very little ; and it 
needed the achievements of the French traders, aided 
as they were by their Government, in opening up the 
country beyond the Missouri to rouse the company to 
its duty. 

The authorities at home realised that they must be 
up and doing if they were to maintain their monopoly, 
and pursuit of the fabled North- West Passage to the 
great sea between America and Japan was what they 
embarked upon. To a Samuel Hearne, a man who had 
been in the Royal Navy for several years, and had, in 
1756, gone out to the Bay as a quartermaster in the 
company's service, was assigned the leadership of an 
expedition to explore the far north. 

In much the same way that the exploration of Africa 
followed as the result of endeavours to reveal the courses 
of the rivers, so the opening up of inland North 
America by the fur traders was to a large extent the out- 
come of the quest of certain rivers or lakes of which the 
up-country Indians spoke when they came to the 
stockaded forts with their furs. We have seen how 
Radisson pushed along the rivers and discovered new 
ones ; and V^rendrye also had done the same, while, as 
we shall see in a later chapter, Alexander Mackenzie 
explored the Great Slave River and discovered the 
mighty stream that was to be named after him. So, 
also, was it with the Hearne expedition : the Indians 
had told of a great river which flowed to the north ; the 
Eskimo on the north-west shores of the Bay told of a 
river which flowed to the north through a land which, 
because the Indians there had copper axe heads and 
ornaments, was supposed to be rich in copper deposits. 

Did this river lead to the far-off Pacific? or did it 



The Coppermine River 19 

run into the Arctic ? No one could answer those ques- 
tons, and it was Hearne's task to find the answers. 

Governor Moses Norton, a scoundrelly half-breed, 
who held sway at Prince of Wales's Fort at the mouth 
of the Churchill River, obtained what information he 
could from Indians, who drew him crude maps on birch 
bark, and these Hearne studied till he knew all they 
could tell him. 

He started on his great trip on November 6, 1769 — 
he and two "common white men" and a couple of 
Indian hunters to act as guides. They headed west- 
north-west as rapidly as they could travel on their 
snowshoes, with small sledges on which the provisions 
were packed. The first night one of the guides deserted, 
and Hearne was not altogether trustful of the other. 
Still, for a month he went on, travelling through a land 
barren and forbidding: "barren grounds, where, in 
general, we thought ourselves well off if we could scrape 
together as many shrubs as would make a fire, but it was 
scarcely ever in our power to make any other defence 
against the weather than by digging a hole in the snow 
down to the moss, wrapping ourselves up in our cloth- 
ing, and lying in it, with our sledges set up edgeways 
to windward." 

For a time the food was eked out by the Indians' 
hunting, as was the custom with the pioneers of the 
frozen north. But Hearne's Indians were a crafty lot; 
they did not really want to go out into the cold north, 
and thought that if they did not hunt the expedition 
would put back. They tried to starve the white men, 
even going so far as to get well ahead in places where 
game was likely to be found and getting in the death- 
shots first, so that there was no food for the explorers, 
whose sledges at last they raided, seized what little food 
remained, and deserted in the night. 

Not only the food had they taken, but the weapons 



20 The Boy's Book of Pioneers 

as well, and Hearne awoke only just in time to hail 
them — to receive their mocking laughter in reply. 

It meant failure, that Hearne realised, for weaponless, 
foodless, he could not proceed, and he had to make the 
best of a bad job and return to the fort, depending 
upon what game they could snare to carry them 
through the two hundred miles. 

But Hearne had not given up his task; he meant to 
find that river of the metal land; he would go forth 
again. This time, however, he had no white men with 
him, and he stipulated that the Indians who were to 
accompany him should be selected with more care than 
was the case with those who had wrecked his previous 
expedition. 

So, with two Cree guides and two Chipewyans, 
Hearne set out on February 23, 1770, travelling with as 
little stores as possible, resolved to depend upon the 
snare and the musket for the cooking-pot. What food 
they did carry was on the sledges, and the explorer and 
his comrades were on snowshoes, fof much of the 
travelling would be during the winter. 

He went on through the barren land, along the 
lakes and rivers, all frozen ; and there was little 
happened, except the constant hunting for food, the 
continual speeding on, the nightly digging down 
through the snow to the moss beneath to find a bed. 
And finally the travellers had to call a halt, at the side 
of the lake, because the game had left the country 
around the shores of the Bay. 

It was a case of camping until the ice began to 
break up, when the caribou would come back, and the 
hares and grouse be plentiful again. He formed his 
camp Indian fashion : he delved through the snow to 
the moss bed, dug away the snow with snowshoes, and 
built his wigwam in the circle thus made. 

For over a month Hearne and his companions lived 



The Coppermine River 21 

in this home in the wilds, with the north wind howling 
around them, and little food inside them. Towards the 
end of the time — they were waiting for spring, when the 
wild geese would arrive — food gave out altogether; for 
three days all these men had was tobacco to smoke and 
snow water to drink ! 

It was on the third night that salvation came. The 
Indians, as had been their wont throughout the dismal 
wait, had gone out that day seeking something to hunt 
and kill. They went without much hope, because for 
a long time they had found nothing and had returned 
to the foodless wigwam. Hearne knew that the time 
had come when everything depended upon a fair supply 
of food, and he lay in the tent all through the day wait- 
ing anxiously for the return of the hunters, who came 
not. . . . 

All night he waited, and slept not, straining his 
ears to catch the sounds of the returning Indians. At 
last the thought came : they had gone off, leaving him 
to his fate ! And Hearne, worn out with anxiety and 
weak with hunger, could keep his eyes open no longer. 
He went to sleep, to awake as a yell from outside 
startled him, and his eyes were gladdened by the sight 
of his hunters returning heavily laden with deer meat, 
sufficient to last them many days, until the middle of 
May, when the birds of passage became plentiful and 
the thaw, which had set in and made travelling im- 
possible, was almost over. 

Sledges were loaded, and across the barren lands the 
travellers hauled them for a month, going northwards, 
struggling through the yielding snow, which filled up 
the snowshoes and made many a halt necessary. 

In this way many miles were covered, and then the 
weather became hot, the sledges had to be discarded, 
the loads carried on the men's backs. There was seldom 
a chance to pitch a tent, because the ground was rocky, 



22 The Boy's Book of Pioneers 

and the tent-poles could not be set up. The bare ground 
formed the bed on such occasions and the heavens 
a canopy — and it was not always fine ! Rain fell in 
torrents very often ; fires were sometimes impossible, and 
the food had to be eaten raw. Yet even this was to be 
preferred to no food at all, as was the case after a time, 
and the pipe and a drink of water were the sole 
sustenance of the travellers, with perhaps a few cran- 
berries they managed to find at times. 

"Notwithstanding these accumulated and compli- 
cated hardships," he wrote, "we continued in health and 
good spirits." 

One day, when they were at the end of their stores, 
they came upon three musk oxen, which Hearne hailed 
as a gift from the gods, for even the awful flesh of 
this beast, with its musky odour, was better than 
nothing, and one of the animals was promptly shot. 
Instantly the men set to work skinning it ready for the 
pot, but, to their disappointment, before they had 
finished the work, there was a heavy downfall of rain, 
which rendered fire-making impossible, and the dis- 
gusting meat, bad enough cooked, had to be eaten 
raw. . . . 

In due course Hearne reached 63 degrees north 
latitude, and felt that he was well on the way; and of 
one of the Indians whom he met he managed to buy a 
•canoe for a knife, "the full value of which did not 
exceed one penny " ! He had purchased this canoe 
because the Indians had told him that very soon he 
would come to rivers which were so deep and swift that 
they could not be waded through. Even the worthless 
knife was thrown away, for Hearne could not continue 
his journey to its end, as the story will show. He joined 
a band of six hundred Indians from the north, who were 
hunting caribou, and, on the advice of an Indian, who 
assured him that it was impossible that season to dis- 



The Coppermine River 23 

cover the great river he sought, Hearne decided to spend 
the winter in the Indian encampment. 

That was a terrible winter for Hearne, because the 
Indians took advantage of his loneliness amongst them, 
and robbed him whenever they could : one man stole 
his gunpowder, and ran off. Hearne had to search for 
him a whole day, for without ammunition he was at the 
mercy of any Indian, and it would be impossible to 
secure food. By sheer good luck Hearne, after a most 
assiduous search, found his bag of gunpowder on the 
bank of a river, left there by the Indian, who had prob- 
ably got wind that the white man was on his trail. 

Then came the great catastrophe : his quadrant, 
which he used to take observations, and which he re- 
garded as the most important instrument with him, and 
without which it was no good pushing into the Arctic 
if he wished to do any valuable work, was smashed by 
being blown off its stand by a violent wind. 

And once more Hearne resolved to go back to 
Prince of Wales's Fort. 

It was disheartening, especially as he had made such 
good progress. 

He joined forces with a band of north cduntry 
Indians who were making towards the great bay; but he 
would probably have done better by going alone, for the 
Indians were by no means friendly. They not only 
stole most of the goods he had left, but also refused to 
help him in any way, even going so far as to prohibit 
their women dressing the reindeer skins, which were 
needed to make clothes to shield the travellers from 
the bitter weather through which they had to journey. 
So dreadfully cold was it that Hearne 's dog was frozen 
in the traces ! The tent-poles had been burnt for fire- 
wood, and the travellers were in the most desperate 
plight, when salvation came to them in the shape of 
Matonabi. 



24 The Boy's Book of Pioneers 

Matonabi was a famous Indian guide, who acted as 
messenger between the company and the Indian tribes, 
and had done good work for the former. When Hearne 
met him on the way back to the fort, Matonabi was out 
with a band of his Chipewyans, and these he set to work 
to help Hearne's men with the reindeer skins. Then 
the two companies joined forces and hurried on towards 
the post, and while doing this the white man told the 
Indian what had happened — what difficulties he had 
been faced with, and how he had failed despite all his 
efforts and perseverance. Matonabi, who knew pioneer- 
ing from A to Z — he had discovered the Athabasca, 
amongst other things — gave Hearne some very sound 
advice. 

"He attributed all our misfortunes," Hearne wrote, 
"to the misconduct of my guides, and the very plan we 
pursued, by the desire of the Governor, in not taking 
any women with us on this journey was, he said, the 
principal thing that occasioned our wants. ' For,' he 
said, ' when all the men are heavy laden they can 
neither hunt nor travel to any considerable distance ; 
and in case they meet with success in hunting, who is 
to carry the produce of their labour? Women,' he 
added, * were made for labour, one of them can carry, 
or haul, as much as two men can do. They also pitch 
our tents, make and mend our clothing; and, in fact, 
there is no such thing as travelling any considerable 
distance, or for any length of time, in this country 
without their assistance.' " 

Matonabi, as Hearne could see, acted upon his 
own advice, for the band which he was leading to the 
fort with furs had large numbers of women, who drove 
the dog sledges, and who had been used for all the 
purposes the Indian chief had indicated. 

On that journey through the frozen wastes Matonabi 
not only gave advice to Hearne, he offered him help. 



The Coppermine River 25 

He would, if the white man agreed, go with him as 
guide on yet a third expedition to discover the copper 
land, and the thing should be done properly. 

Hearne jumped at the offer : he could see that 
success lay that way, and he left Matonabi to come up 
as he liked while he dashed on to the fort, where he 
placed his new plans before the Governor. Receiving 
his sanction, on December 7, 1770, less than a fortnight 
after having returned, Hearne was once more on the 
trail. 

Hearne never let grass grow under his feet, or, per- 
haps, the simile should be in that case, never allowed 
the snow to cover up the trail ! 

When Hearne started on his third expedition he was 
in high spirits, for Matonabi was with him, and this 
meant that the doggedness of the white man would be 
allied to the experience of the red man. Of course, 
Matonabi took his slave women with him — haulers of 
the dog sledges, which carried what food they con- 
sidered necessary. Matonabi took less than he might 
have done, because, on the bank of the Egg River, 
some of his people had previously cached a large 
amount of provisions, which would be picked up. But 
when Egg River was reached, and the cache was 
opened, it was discovered that some nosing Indians had 
hit upon it and rifled it of every morsel of food and 
every implement. 

This was a severe blow to the expedition, whose food 
was very short, and whose prospect of killing for the 
pot was very small, because the animals had gone away, 
making for the woods. But Hearne noted, with some- 
thing of amazement, that Matonabi did not grouse 
because the cache had been rifled nor get into a rage. 
It was a law amongst the Indians of the wild north — 
those gentlemen of savagery — that a man who was in 
dire ne&d of food was entitled to whatever food he found. 



26 The Boy's Book of Pioneers 

Thus it was that Matonabi was resigned : it was 
inevitable — the Great Spirit had so decreed it. 

But the problem of shortage of food faced him 
and his party nevertheless, and it called for a 
mighty effort forward, although the cooking-pot was 
seldom set over a fire, except to boil water. The slave 
women took snares and went out into the vastness, and 
came back empty-handed ; and day after day the sledges 
were hauled over the snow by people who were so 
weary and hungry that eighteen miles a day were the 
most they could do. 

Christmas was spent in that fashion. For three days 
before Hearne had tasted nothing — except the snow 
water and the inevitable pipe; and the explorer wrote 
that he never spent so dull a Christmas I That is all. 
"Dull!" 

At the end of the month partial relief was obtained 
at a camp of Matonabi 's tribe on Island Lake, where a 
little dried venison and some fish were collected. On 
this they subsisted until they came to the barren lands, 
at the time when the caribou herds were shedding their 
antlers before plunging into the forests for the winter. 
Then there was a drive. The Indian hunters shot 
enough reindeer to provide them with sufficient meat to 
last out the journey to the Coppermine River. 

Then on again, until they reached a lake called 
Little Fish Hill Lake, on which was an island, where 
they camped, to gather more meat and to prepare poles 
for the tents, which they would use in summer; in- 
cidentally, the same poles in winter were to provide 
frames for new snowshoes. 

And here, while the work was proceeding, Matonabi 
bought unto himself another wife, making seven ; he 
seemed to collect them as a boy collects stamps 1 And 
he always chose them, not for beauty, but for strength — 
they made such fine beasts of burden, and were so useful 



The Coppermine River 27 

in getting and cooking food ! When the party moved 
out away from the Fish Hill Lake to Lake Clowey, 
Matonabi got into a little scrap with a man whose wife 
he had stolen some time before. The man happened to 
be at Lake Clowey when the Indians pitched camp, and 
he recognised the towering figure of Matonabi ; he 
tackled the chief upon the delicate matter of the stolen 
wife. Matonabi calmly went back to his own tent, 
opened a bundle belonging to one of his wives, took out 
a wicked-looking knife, and straightway went to the 
tent of the injured husband, whom he grasped by the 
neck and — tried to kill him ! That man's life was only 
saved — after he had received three severe wounds in 
the back — by timely interference from other Indians, 
who succeeded in turning Matonabi from his intention, 
and the chief went back to his own tent, washed the 
blood from his hands and the knife, lighted his pipe, 
and asked Hearne if he didn't think he had done right ! 
Barbaric? Yes, but to Matonabi it was the proper 
way of winning a wife, or, if he had her, of keeping 
her I " For," says Hearne, " it has ever been the custom 
among those people for the men to wrestle for any 
woman to whom they are attached; and of course the 
strongest party always carries off the prize. A weak 
man, unless he be a good hunter and well beloved, is 
seldom permitted to keep a wife that a stronger man 
thinks worth his notice, for, at any time when the wives 
of those strong wrestlers are heavy laden, either with 
furs or provisions, they make no scruple of tearing any 
other man's wife from his bosom and making her bear 
a part of his luggage. This custom prevails throughout 
all their tribes, and causes a great spirit of emulation 
among their youth, who are, upon all occasions, from 
their childhood, trying their strength and skill in 
wrestling. This enables them to protect their property, 
and particularly their wives, from the hands of those 



28 The Boy's Book of Pioneers 

powerful ravishers, some of whom make almost a liveli- 
hood by taking what they please from the weaker parties 
without making them any return. Indeed, it is repre- 
sented as an act of great generosity if they condescend 
to make an unequal exchange, as, in general, abuse 
and insult are the only return for the loss which is 
sustained. 

"The way in which they tear their women and other 
property from one another, though it has the appear- 
ance of the greatest brutality, can scarcely be called 
fighting. (Matonabi's affair, apparently, was a little 
beside the mark.) I never knew any of them receive the 
least hurt in these rencontres; the whole business con- 
sists in hauling each other about by the hair of the 
head; they are seldom known either to strike or kick 
one another. It is not uncommon for one of them to 
cut off his hair and to grease his ears immediately before 
the contest begins. This, however, is done privately, 
and it is sometimes truly laughable to see one of the 
parties strutting about with an air of great importance, 
and calling out : ' Where is he ? Why does he not 
come out ? ' when the other will bolt out with a clean- 
shorn head and greased ears, rush on his antagonist, 
seize him by the hair, and, though perhaps a much 
weaker man, soon drag him to the ground, while the 
stronger is not able to lay hold of him. It is very 
frequent on those occasions for each party to have 
spies to watch the other's motions, which put them 
more on a footing of equality. For want of hair to 
pull they seize each other about the waist, with legs 
wide extended, and try their strength by endeavouring 
to vie who can first throw the other down." 

Other events than the domestic trouble of Matonabi 
occurred at Clowey Lake, however. For one thing, the 
Indians set to building canoes in which to carry food 
down the river in the warm weather, which would begin 



The Coppermine River 29 

at the end of May. These canoes, which were very 
light, because they would have to be portaged at some 
places for perhaps a hundred miles, were built larger 
at the front than behind, so that they could resist the 
ice-jams; they were fiat-bottomed, with straight sides, 
of a length of about twelve feet and width two feet. 

Another event at Clowey Lake was the joining up 
of Matonabi's Indians with a band of warriors from the 
north. Hearne began to wonder what it all meant. 
Neither Matonabi nor any of the other Indians told him 
what was afoot, but the suspicion entered the white 
man's mind that this push to the north might have 
something to do with the collection of the beaver skins 
which the Indians brought year by year to the Hud- 
son Bay Fort, and that they were not collected 
legitimately by hunting, but by massacre of the 
Eskimo. 

How accurate Hearne was in his suspicions will be 
gathered in the sequel. 

Before the warriors set forth they sent away their 
women and children to rendezvous at Lake Athabasca, 
and fashioned for themselves light shields from the 
wood they cut in the forests. They got ready all their 
weapons, and then set out on the trail, through desolate 
country, which drove half the warriors back. A band 
of the Copper Indians joined up after a while, and they 
were perfectly amazed at the sight of Hearne, the first 
white man they had ever seen, while Hearne himself 
was sure now that they were nearing the land of the red 
metal. These Copper Indians acted as guides to the 
Stony Mountains, which presented what seemed an im- 
passable barrier to progress, for they were "a confused 
heap of stones, quite inaccessible to the foot man." 
But over this range the explorer and his companions 
went, at places literally crawling on hands and knees, 
with guns strapped on to their backs, or else held 



30 The Boy's Book of Pioneers 

between their teeth. The weather was atrocious : rain, 
sleet and snow, howling winds, were the order, and the 
canoes had to be carried ; but the Stony Mountains were 
topped at last, and the descent of the ridge began, 
during which a large lake was crossed : to this Hearne 
gave the name of Musk Ox Lake, because of the large 
numbers of those beasts which he saw there. 

He had crossed the Arctic Circle, and was in the land 
where, during the summer, the sun did not set. The 
weather was warm, there was plenty of firewood, plenty 
of reindeer for food, and swarms of mosquitoes, which 
made it impossible to sleep at night. ^They were near a 
great river now, as Hearne could plainly tell, because 
the mountain sides were scarred by torrents filled with 
great cataracts. 

His first glimpse of the Coppermine River was 
through a dispersing mist, and he was woefully dis- 
appointed, for, at the place where he reached it, the 
river was less than a couple of hundred yards wide, was 
shallow, and full of shoals, narrowing into a waterfall 
that poured over the rocks in three sounding cataracts. 

Not much to have laboured so strenuously for and 
so perseveringly ! 

Yet the work was not done. 

Hearne now discovered the real reason why the 
Indians had been so willing to lead him northwards. 
The warriors lost no time in sending out their scouts to 
pick up the trail of Eskimo and to find out where they 
were encamped. No fires were allowed, lest the smoke 
give warning to the Eskimo of the coming of foes, for, 
in this warfare, which was nothing more than a 
massacre, surprise was everything. . . . 

And, while the spies scouted, the warriors got ready. 
They daubed on their war paint, either cut their hair 
short or tied it behind, slipped off their stockings, rolled 
up their sleeves or else cut them off, and, despite the 



The Coppermine River 31 

swarms of mosquitoes, some of them even pulled off 
their jackets and went to the battle wellnigh naked. 
All this was done with the idea of discarding every- 
thing that would impede movement or allow a handhold 
to an enemy. 

The spies came back with news of an Eskimo en- 
campment down-stream; and silently the Indians waded 
across the river, threaded their careful way towards the 
camp, and suddenly sprang to the fray, and the Eskimo, 
who were asleep, were awakened to the sound of war- 
cries and banging muskets. 

Out they came, half asleep still, filled with fear, 
taken utterly by surprise, and a dreadful carnage 
began. 

"The scene was shocking beyond description. The 
poor unhappy victims were surprised in the midst of 
their sleep, and had neither time nor power to make 
any resistance. Men, women, and children, in all 
upward of twenty, ran out of their tents stark naked, 
and endeavoured to make their escape, but, the Indians 
having possession of all the landside, to no place could 
they fly for shelter. One alternative only remained, that 
of jumping into the river, but, as none of them attempted 
it, they all fell a sacrifice to Indian barbarity I 

"The shrieks and groans of the poor expiring 
wretches were truly dreadful ; and my horror was much 
increased at seeing a young girl, seemingly about 
eighteen years of age, killed so near me that when the 
first spear was stuck into her side she fell down at my 
feet and twisted round my legs, so that it was with 
difficulty that I could disengage myself from her dying 
grasp. As two Indian men pursued this unfortunate 
victim, I solicited hard for her life, but the murderers 
made no reply till they had stuck both their spears 
through her body and transfixed her to the ground. 
They then looked me sternly in the face, and began to 



32 The Boy's Book of Pioneers 

ridicule me by asking if I wanted an Eskimo wife ; and 
paid not the smallest regard to the shrieks and agony 
of the poor wretch, who was twining round their spears 
like an eel ! 

"... My own situation and the terror of my mind 
at beholding this butchery cannot easily be conceived, 
much less described. Though I summoned all the forti- 
tude I was master of -on the occasion, it was with 
difficulty that I could refrain from tears, and I am 
confident that my features must have feelingly expressed 
how sincerely I was affected at the barbarous scene I 
then witnessed. Even at this hour I cannot reflect on 
the transactions of that horrid day without shedding 
tears." 

Firearms were unknown to the Eskimo, so that a 
few on the opposite bank of the river did not 
take refuge in flight; indeed, when the bullets 
knocked up dust from the ground they ran "to see 
what was sent them, and seemed anxious to examine all 
the pieces of lead which they found flattened against 
the rocks." When one of the Eskimo men was shot in 
the calf of his leg, however, the others took fright, and 
embarking in their canoes, paddled swiftly to a shoal in 
the middle of the river, out of range of the guns. 

"The northern Indians began to plunder the tents of 
the deceased of all the copper utensils they could find, 
such as hatchets, bayonets, knives, etc., after which they 
assembled on the top of an adjacent hill, and, standing 
all in a cluster, so as to form a solid circle, with their 
spears erect in the air, gave many shouts of victory, 
constantly clashing their spears against each other, and 
frequently calling out ' Timal Tima! ' [Tima in the 
Eskimo language being the equivalent of "What 
cheer ! "] by way of derision to the poor surviving 
Eskimo, who were standing on the shoal almost knee 
deep in water." 



The Coppermine River 33 

In such way was the discovery of the Coppermine 
River by the white man celebrated by his Indian com- 
panions. He could do nothing to stop them in their 
orgy of devilishness, and was glad when they told him 
that they were ready to go with him to the end of his 
journey, which was the Arctic Sea. 

The Coppermine River was not navigable at the 
place where the massacre had occurred, and the trip 
had to be made on foot. On July 17 the shores of the 
Arctic Ocean were reached, and Hearne, the first white 
man to reach it overland, stood and looked out upon its 
ice-covered surface. Seals were abundant, birds of 
many kinds — golden plovers, green plovers, gulls, 
divers, curlews, geese and swans, were there in flocks; 
far behind him was wooded land, the home of the wolves 
and bears, the foxes and the musk oxen, and so on. 

At one o'clock on the morning of the 17th, Samuel 
Hearne took possession of the Arctic Regions in the 
name of the Hudson's Bay Company. The share- 
holders in England and the anti-monopolists would 
surely be satisfied 1 

Then, before setting out southwards, Hearne visited 
the copper mines about which so much had been said, 
and found in them nothing to enthuse about, for they 
were poor in copper in those days, a good deal of the 
metal having been taken away by the Indians, who used 
it largely in making their implements. 

Then away southwards towards Athabasca Lake, 
where the Indians' women were waiting. The Great 
Slave Lake, which Hearne called "Lake Athapuscow," 
was discovered on the way, and it was ice-covered at 
the time. Across this the travellers went, as they had 
been going for many days, at a rapid pace. Hearne 
drew a rare picture of the woes of that march : 

"I had so little power to direct my feet when walk- 
ing that I frequently knocked them against the stones 



34 The Boy's Book of Pioneers 

with such force as not only to jar and disorder them, 
but my legs also ; and the nails of my toes were bruised 
to such a degree that several of them festered and 
dropped off. To add to this mishap, the skin was en- 
tirely chafed off from the tops of both my feet and 
between every toe, so that the sand and gravel, which I 
could by no means exclude, irritated the raw parts so 
much that, for a whole day before we arrived at the 
women's tents, I left the print of my feet in blood 
almost at every step I took. Several of the Indians 
began to complain that their feet also were sore, but, 
on examination, not one of them was in the twentieth 
part in so bad a state as mine. This being the first 
time I had been in such a situation, or seen anybody 
foot-foundered, I was much alarmed, and under great 
apprehensions for the consequences. Though I was but 
little fatigued in body, yet the excruciating pain I 
suffered when walking had such an effect on my spirits 
that if the Indians had continued to travel two or three 
days longer at that unmerciful rate I must have un- 
avoidably been left behind, for my feet were in many 
places quite honeycombed by the dirt and gravel eating 
into the raw flesh." 

But, at last, the smoke curling up told the warriors 
that they were nearing the tents of their women, and 
forthwith they performed their rites of purification for 
blood-guiltiness in killing the Eskimo. Every man who 
had been concerned in that affair was unclean until after 
the ceremony, and was not allowed to cook any food, 
either for himself or for others. Two men of the party 
only were free of the taint, and upon them devolved the 
work, during the long march towards the south, of 
cooking. "This circumstance," Hearne wrote, "was 
exceedingly favourable on my side, for, had there been 
no persons of the above description in the company, 
that task, I was told, would ha^^e fallen upon me, which 



The Coppermine River 35 

would have been no less fatiguing and troublesome than 
humiliating and vexatious." 

Moreover, before the warriors could eat, they painted 
the space between the nose and chin, and the greater 
part of their cheeks, almost to the ears, with red earth ; 
and no man would drink out of another man's utensil or 
smoke his pipe if he could help it ; while food was never 
cooked in water, but dried in the sun, broiled, or eaten 
raw. 

The taboo was lifted as follows : 

The men gathered together (women were excluded 
from this ceremony) and made a fire, into which they 
flung their ornaments, dishes, pipe-stems, and after 
these were burnt up, heated stones were thrown into a 
pool, in which the blood-guilty bathed, and after that 
they prepared a feast, to which they did full justice, and 
were once more clean. . . . 

It was October when the party reached Lake Atha- 
basca, and they stayed there for some months, until the 
spring came, and the Indians were ready to go on the 
trail down to the fur-trading stations on the bay. With 
them went the explorer, arriving at Prince of Wales 
Fort on June 30, 1772, eighteen months from the time 
he had set out on the journey, during which he had 
done an amazing amount of work. He had discovered 
the Coppermine River, the Arctic Ocean via the land 
route, the Great Slave Lake and the Athabasca country. 

He received recognition for his labours, being made, 
in 1775, Governor of Prince of Wales Fort. But, before 
that time, he had established the first important far 
inland fur station for the Hudson's Bay Company; this 
was at the entrance to Pine Island Lake, on the Lower 
Saskatchewan, and he called it Cumberland House. 

He ruled at Prince of Wales's Fort for some years, 
and the business of the company went swimmingly. 
Then, in 1782, the French Admiral La Perouse swept 



36 The Boy's Book of Pioneers 

into the bay with three ships of war, disembarked four 
hundred soldiers, and demanded the surrender of the 
fort. Hearne, who had less than fifty men, realised that 
it was hopeless to try to defend the place, and so 
surrendered. The Frenchmen commandeered all the 
furs and looted the fort and station. Matonabi, who was 
absent when the raid took place, came back to find the 
whole place wrecked, and the faithful old Indian could 
not bear the shattering of all his hopes of the English, 
whom he had looked upon as the masters of the world — 
men who could not be defeated, men who could win 
through anything and everything, and he shot himself. 
A rare tribute that to Hearne and what he stood for. . . . 
Hearne remained in Canada several years longer, re- 
turning to England in 1787, after having done more 
than his share of the work of opening up the wilds of 
the north. 



TO THE ROCKIES— AND BEYOND 

The Journeys of Alexander Mackenzie into 
the Great Unknown 

WHEN Alexander Mackenzie, of the North- West 
Fur Company, set out for the farthest west, it 
was to endeavour to solve the problem of the north- 
west passage, to see if the Slave River emptied itself 
into the Arctic or the Pacific. He was chief trader at 
Chipewyan, and many of his adventures match Radis- 
son's. Like that worthy Frenchman, he was intrepid, 
risk-all in his ambitions, and resourceful in danger 
moments. Only such a man would have dared the great 
venture across the continent. 

When, at the beginning of June, 1789, he left 
Chipewyan, where he had been chief trader, and where 
he had left his cousin Roderick in charge during his 
temporary absence, Mackenzie's party consisted of four 
Canadian voyageurs and the Indian wives of two of 
them, who were to do the cooking for the party, a 
German, and a band of Indian hunters and interpreters, 
among whom was English Chief, who acted as guide, 
as he had done to Samuel Hearne when that pioneer 
had gone to the Copper Mine River and the Great Slave 
Lake. 

Along the Slave River the birch canoes went, aided 
by the current and propelled by the paddles of the 
voyageurs and Indians, It was stiff going : in one day 
no fewer than six portages were necessary ; fog en- 
shrouded them for well over a week, so that they knew 
little where they were going except that the river was 
taking them — somewhere ; ice was still in the river, and 

37 



38 The Boy's Book of Pioneers 

made their work harder, especially when it happened 
that they had to clamber ashore to avoid rapids, for 
then it was next to impossible to haul up the canoes, 
foothold being extremely difficult. For days before they 
reached the Great Slave Lake the rain fell in torrents, 
soaking them through and through, the only favourable 
thing being a stiff wind which, when they hoisted a 
small sail, relieved them of the necessity for paddling, 
though the rain and the water, driven high by the wind, 
kept them hard at it bailing out the canoes. 

And when at last they reached the lake, a difficulty 
confronted them : there were two outlets, and Mackenzie 
did not know which one to take. The Great River of 
the north — that was what Mackenzie wanted, but even 
a hired guide of the Slave Indians could not find it, 
until, after having wasted many precious days, he was 
terrified into doing so by the threat of English Chief, 
leader of Mackenzie's Indians, that he would have his 
scalp if the canoes did not soon get out of the lake. 

The guide found the outlet, and the explorer went 
sweeping down the current, which raced between banks 
half a mile apart, out into the river which was later to 
be named after him. 

Mackenzie inquired of Indians in the neighbourhood 
for the "salt water" — the sea, which he sought, and a 
pretty story he got ! Not that the white man troubled 
very much about the dangers that lay ahead ; it was his 
Indians who objected to rapids which could not be 
passed, a starved land where death waited either by 
starvation or at the hands of fierce tribes, who made it 
a rule to murder every comer from the south. They 
wanted to go back; Mackenzie wanted to go forward, 
and forward he went. The Slave Indian guide tried to 
desert ; he was dumped into a canoe which was placed at 
the head of the line, the blade of a paddle being used as 
a prodding stick. 



To the Rockies — and Beyond 39 

There is something to be said for the timidity of the 
waverers : a great unknown land around and before 
them, tribes who might lurk at every portage and 
ambush them, or maybe attack them from the banks of 
the river ; mountains which reared mighty snow-capped 
heads, austere, forbidding, like sentinels of an un- 
approachable kingdom, and a guide who sought every 
opportunity to escape from his task — with his friends 
following close behind to help him ! And the river, the 
Good Spirit alone knew where that river led to; as it 
was, it seemed its banks towered above them, seeming to 
shut them in, and as the days went by and the "salt 
watef " did not appear, the voyageurs began to bethink 
them of the winter, which might find them far away 
from home and unable to return over the frozen land, 
where no food was to be obtained. 

The explorer entered and passed through Great Bear 
Lake, and on the beach there he discovered coal. The 
whole bank of the river seemed to be on fire, and he 
imagined that this was the result of Indians having 
camped there. The real fact of the case was that the 
lignite coal there spontaneously caught fire when ex- 
posed to moist air. Well over a hundred years later that 
fire was still burning ! 

Mackenzie, after coming out of the Bear Lake, swept 
down the river, awed by the sombre character of the 
country, but determined to keep on ; and when, one 
night, his timid guide made a clear getaway, he promptly 
impressed one from an encampment on the bank, and 
kept on down the now widening river. 

And still the sea did not appear; and it came to the 
point when, to avoid trouble, Mackenzie had to promise 
his Canadian voyageurs that, if it was not reached in 
a week, he would return to Chipewyan. Whether the 
explorer would have prevailed upon them to go farther 
after that time it is impossible to say ; of one thing we 



40 The Boy's Book of Pioneers 

can be sure, he would have been woefully disappointed 
had it been necessary to turn the canoes round and fight 
against the current, having failed of his purpose. 

But he was nearer success than he knew, for the very 
night that he came to that arrangement he reached the 
land of the midnight sun. Through the long night the 
men paddled hard, buoyed up now by the hope of 
success; between sixty and seventy miles at a stretch 
they made progress, until, on July 13, they came to 
tidal water and whales. He had reached latitude 
69° 14" north. 

It was victory — achieved after six weeks of hard 
travelling. Mackenzie had found the sea, had pene- 
trated the Arctic, and he erected a post, on which he 
engraved the date, July 14, 1789, and the names of all 
those with him. 

Mackenzie would have lingered in the neighbour- 
hood exploring, but he could not depend upon his 
guides, and there was a danger of being held up and not 
being able to get back before the winter. Another thing, 
he was not equipped for spending a winter on the shores 
of the Arctic, so the work having been accomplished as 
far as was possible, the party set off home. Eight weeks 
it took to return, fighting against the current all the 
way, often having to haul the canoes along by tow 
lines, the haulers now and again sinking up to the waist 
in bogs. But at last Chipewyan was reached, and next 
spring Mackenzie went to Fort William, on Lake 
Superior, to report his discovery of the great river to 
the North- West Company, who were not enthusiastic. 

Mackenzie did not mind that : he had put up the 
money for the venture to the Mackenzie River^ and he 
was prepared to go out on another exploration, if the 
company would give him permission, which it did, and, 
after a journey to England, where he went in for a 
course of training on surveying and astronomy, to fit 



To the Rockies — and Beyond 41 

him for his work, he was back at Chipewyan, waiting 
for the winter to pass, so that he could travel down the 
Peace River and, maybe, trace it to its mouth, which, 
he believed, was on the west coast. 

May came, and the river was fairly free of ice, and 
Mackenzie judged that the time had arrived to set forth. 
One canoe this time, and only a few men : himself, a 
couple of the Canadian voyageurs who had accompanied 
him on his previous journey, four others, two Indian 
hunters, who would keep the pots filled, and Alexander 
Mackay, one of the company's clerks. 

Mackenzie's great fear was that he might be fore- 
stalled, for the north-west coast of the continent was the 
aim of Russia and Spain, as well as England, each 
country endeavouring to stick up a flagpost with its 
"coloured rag " upon it. First in, that was Mackenzie's 
ambition for his country as he went along the Peace 
River, now swollen through the thaw. 

It was a tremendous journey this up the Peace River, 
which seemed little more than a great cataract tumbling 
down the mountains. Yet, up the river Mackenzie went, 
portaging where necessary, and carrying their canoe and 
food through forests. The Rocky Mountains appeared 
in the distance, and from Indians living among the foot- 
hills Mackenzie tried to get information of the route to 
the great sea; all he could gather, however, was that 
away beyond the mountains was a "lake of stinking 
water," where white men in ships "as big as islands" 
went to trade with the natives. With guides obtained 
from these Rocky Mountain Indians, Mackenzie went 
along the River Parsnip (which is the southern branch 
of the Upper Peace River), and he came, having 
canoed and portaged, to a lake which was its source. 
From here they embarked on another mountain stream, 
the Bad River, which they were told flowed southwards 
1.0 a larger river ; the latter was really the Fraser. The 



42 The Boy's Book of Pioneers 

Bad River deserved its name I At one place the twenty- 
five feet canoe was imprisoned in a cafion, where the 
water boiled as in fury at its captivity, and towering 
precipices made it impossible to portage. Mackenzie 
solved the difficulty : he jumped for a favourable spot 
in the rapids, tow-line and axe in hand, hewed foot- 
holds to provide places for his men, and then com- 
manded them to follow him. At the farthest point stood 
Mackenzie, waiting for them; they essayed to follow 
where he had led, where he had prepared the way. 
From jumping off place to jumping off place made by 
his axe they leapt, the explorer catching them each on 
his shoulders at the final bound* 

And the canoe ? Mackenzie fastened his rope (it was 
eighty feet long) to trees, and then went in search of 
the canoe, following the line. When they were near 
her the tow-line, pulled taut as the raging waters strove 
to carry the canoe down stream, snapped, and the ex- 
plorer thought that his craft and goods had gone for 
ever. Fortune still favoured him, however, as though 
willing to grant her gifts to a man who would hazard 
everything on a great enterprise. A great boulder, 
toyed with by the cascade, proved kindly, the backwash 
of it as it swirled along hurled the canoe ashore, and 
instantly the men were reaching out for the tow-line, 
which they seized, and with a mighty effort hauled the 
craft high and dry. 

This was only a beginning; the canon, so Mac- 
kenzie found while his men were feeding, stretched far, 
and from his vantage point on top of a hill he saw that 
as far as the eye could reach, the prospect was one of 
cataract after cataract, up which his way lay I Clearly 
some other route must be chosen to get beyond those 
rapids, and, while the men were hard at it making axe 
handles (Mackenzie had a use for axes in mind !) Mac- 
kay went reconnoitring, and came back with the news 



To the Rockies — and Beyond 43 

that it would be necessary to portage for nine miles over 
mountains. 

And through a forest on the edge of a precipice I 
A trail had to be cut, and the precipice fenced so that 
the men should not slip over its side. Now Mackenzie 
set his men to work with the axes for which they had 
made handles. Trees were felled, the trunks were laid 
along the precipice, the cleared space forming the track. 
While half the party toiled as lumbermen the rest hauled 
the canoe along the primitive road, at the rale of three 
miles a day I 

And at last they reached the river. "The bank of 
a navigable river on the western side of the first great 
range of mountains." Mackenzie would have had to 
turn back had not his men been as scared of the journey 
behind as they were of that before them, for the moun- 
tains over which they had passed seemed as nothing to 
what faced them I As it was, they embarked in their 
canoe, which they had repaired after its rough usage, 
and entered upon this river. Five walked along the 
bank, because the canoe would have been in danger of 
grazing the rock-bottom ilrall rode in her. 

So up stream they went, short of ammunition, 
alarmed occasionally because they thought they heard 
the firing of Indians; and at one place Mackenzie and 
his party, the shore party, lost the canoe, or, rather, 
the canoe lost them, for the voyageurs had gone down 
stream! It was a sorry plight Mackenzie found him- 
self in; almost ammunitionless, without food, and 
hungry through fasting for a day and a night, the 
prospect seemed serious. The canoe must be found. 
Mackay went down the stream ; Mackenzie up ; he re- 
fused to follow his Indians' advice and build a raft on 
which to float down to Chipewyan. That would have 
meant the abandonment of his object, and Mackenzie 
was no man of that kind. 



44 The Boy's Book of Pioneers 

But, though for hours he sought up stream for the 
canoe, he found it not ; and at night, soaked to the very- 
skin, he had to call a halt, and was just dozing off 
when he heard a gunshot — the signal each had agreed 
to fire if the canoe was discovered. 

It drove all thoughts of sleep from Mackenzie, who 
struck off down stream, where he found Mackay and the 
canoe, whose crew vowed that they had been held up by 
a leak. Mackenzie knew it was a lie, that the voyageurs 
had intended to desert, because the canoe bore no signs 
of a leakage. He did not tell them what he suspected, 
but from that time he kept an eye upon the canoe, never 
allowing it to get out of sight. 

Mackenzie was on the eve of a disappointment. 

He had run into an ambush of Indians, before which 
his followers were about to flee, when the fearless white 
man jumped ashore, laden with gifts, and in a few 
moments had the foes friends, taking one of them with 
him as guide. That Indian led him across the Divide 
and to what proved to be the source of the Peace River, 
which showed Mackenzie that it did not lead direct to 
the west coast, as he had surmised. 

But the guide had also led him somewhere else — 
to a river which flowed southwards. Mackenzie was 
greatly troubled at this. He had looked for a river 
flowing due west, and this was what he had found ! 

He decided to trust himself upon it. That river, as 
a matter of fact, did not run directly south, but, after 
passing through the Rockies, swept round to the west, 
heading for the Pacific coast : it was the great Fraser 
River. 

Although they were now going with the current 
instead of against it, as on the Peace River, the 
travelling was none the less difficult and dangerous. 
The cataracts were frequent — the men seemed always to 
be portaging, and when Mackenzie would have walked 



To the Rockies— and Beyond 45 

on in advance, both to look out for danger and to 
lighten the canoe, they would not allow him to do so, 
vowing that he wished to steer clear of dangers to 
which they themselves were constantly exposed. So 
Mackenzie went in the canoe. 

Then came disaster. 

Had it happened when Mackenzie was not in the 
canoe, it is certain that his men would have believed 
what they had told him about his wishing to avoid 
danger, for the frail craft was caught among rocks, and, 
when the men leaped out to try to shift it, the canoe, 
lightened and not under proper control, was swung 
round by the terrific current and carried down-stream 
broadside on, with the men clinging frantically to it. 
Little it was that they could do to stop her in her mad 
course ; they were at the m6rcy of the current, and they 
knew it. They realised the seriousness of the position 
when a grating sound told them that another fock had 
caught the canoe. The next moment her stern was torn 
out, followed almost immediately by the shattering of 
her bows, and then the angry waters picked her up, 
men and all, and flung her against another rock. 

Above the roar of the waters came conflicting 
commands : 

"Save yourselves," cried the steersman, who had 
been flung overboard. 

"Stick to the gun'ales," shouted Mackenzie, who 
himself was now waist-deep in the water, and by his 
example spurred his men on to mighty efforts to save 
the wreck of the canoe, which after a time was got into 
shallower water, thence to the bank. 

Then Mackenzie fell to stocktaking, and found that 
his powder was soaked, and his bullets were lost, only a 
few being found after much searching; the canoe was 
smashed, the crew were scared out of their lives, and 
point blank refused to go any farther. Mackenzie was 



46 The Boy's Book of Pioneers 

not discouraged, nor one whit moved in his determina- 
tion to go on. He patched up the canoe with pieces of 
bark and oilcloth, and then told the men he was going 
on, whether they went with him or whether they stayed 
where they were. By the very masterly force of his 
spirit he prevailed upon them to shoulder the canoe, 
now rendered so heavy that it called for every ounce of 
strength they had to portage it during the three hours 
it took them to pass the rapids. And when they did 
embark once more on the river an Indian guide they 
had picked up deserted in the night, despite the strict 
watch they kept over him; he had been aided by the 
cowardly crew, who thought that, without a guide, 
Mackenzie would surely turn back. 

They had not even yet understood the indomitable 
determination of this man of the wilds, who, guideless 
now, kept on down the river, and followed the course 
southwards, although he was disappointed that it did 
not go west. 

Twice the little party were assailed by Indians; the 
first time, after firing a few volleys, the enemies fled, 
but the second time they were more persistent, and find- 
ing he could not get to close quarters with them by a 
frontal advance, Mackenzie tried other means. He 
made his men go down-stream while he landed on the 
opposite bank, a solitary white man, bent on making 
friends with the Indians, whos^ canoes were lying on 
the farther bank. Then he boldly stepped to the water's 
edge, weaponless, but bearing in his hands a number of 
trinkets. The Indians, sensing that this fearless man 
would make friends, slipped into their canoes and 
paddled across to him, received his presents, and within 
a few minutes the white man was hobnobbing with 
them, asking the questions answers to which he so much 
needed. 

Which way, how far, did the river go? What was 



To the Rockies — and Beyond 47 

it like farther down? and so on. And they told him 
that it ran towards the midday sun, through shining 
mountains, and that it ran for many moons, with rapids 
at many places — all very annoying information, from 
Mackenzie's point of view. He was tempted to act upon 
the advice of the Indians, who told him that if he would 
retrace his path up the river another way, and leave 
his canoe, he would come to another river, by which he 
could more quickly reach the salt water than by follow- 
ing the Fraser River. Mackenzie, however, went on for a 
while (he left Mackay behind), only to receive confir- 
mation of the information from other Indians down- 
stream. 

The time had come for him to face hard facts : his 
men were frankly rebellious. 

"If you do not care to come," he told them, "I shall 
go on alone." 

They could please themselves. 

The very fearlessness of the man made them follow 
him, and Mackenzie, gratified at their loyalty, went back 
upstream to rejoin Mackay and to wait for a guide pro- 
mised to him by the Indians who had given him his 
information. 

When Mackenzie had left the Indians he had told 
them that he would not be back for many moons; but 
the sight of his return caused much commotion amongst 
the natives, who thought that he had some sinister 
motive. 

Mackenzie tried to explain ; but the war-whooping 
natives would not listen, and the explorer had to run 
his badly leaking canoe ashore on the opposite bank at 
a place where a little hut offered shelter of a kind. The 
front of that hut faced across the river, where, in the 
forest, the Indiana lurked, and the white men had to 
keep constant watch, night and day, against them. The 
work of patching the canoe went on while they waited 



48 The Boy's Book of Pioneers 

for the guide, and the days were filled with anxiety and 
the nights with terror — for Mackenzie's men. The 
third night, it seemed, their fears were to be justified, 
for a rustling in the undergrowth near the hut alarmed 
them; they imagined that the Indians had managed to 
creep up unobserved and were about to attack the hut. 

There was a rush, on the men's part, for the canoe, 
which they loaded, and would have fled with it had not 
Mackenzie fearlessly exhorted them to come back. 
Three times did that happen that night, but the men 
stayed on, and in the morning the cause of the alarm 
was discovered by Mackenzie, who saw something 
moving in the forest. He did not fire, but rushed out — 
and found a blind man I 

He had been living in the hut, and had been coming 
back to it in the night, and was thoroughly scared at 
the presence of the strangers. Mackenzie calmed him 
down, and asked him to lead them to the place where 
the guide was to meet them, seeing that the Indians 
yonder could not be prevailed upon to open up negotia- 
tions. The blind man was so terrified that Mackenzie 
had to lift him into the canoe, and when he was in the 
explorer knew that the Indians would not fire at the 
party for fear of hitting their comrade, who in due 
course brought them to the carrying place where the 
guide was found. But the guide deserted, and Mac- 
kenzie, acting upon information he had received, pushed 
on up a small western affluent of the Upper Fraser 
(later named the Blackwater). Here the absconding 
guide rejoined them, with six other natives, and 
on July 4 Mackenzie began his journey overland. 
He had left his canoe behind, with all superfluous pro- 
visions, the amount taken being ninety pounds' weight 
per man, and even this apparently large amount was 
carefully apportioned, the rations being but two meals 
(not very hearty ones, either) per day. 



To the Rockies — and Beyond 49 

The guide led the way along a well marked trail, 
though it was by no means easy, and was made more 
difficult by reason of heavy rains. Remembering his 
previous experiences, Mackenzie took precious care to 
prevent his guide from giving him the slip : he slept by 
his side at night, under the same cloak, and almost with 
one eye open ; he was not going to be foiled of his 
purpose through not taking precautions ! 

At last, after a fortnight's hard march on little food, 
augmented by wild vegetables, such as they could 
obtain from bands of natives, a march during which 
the explorers had traversed the last range of mountains 
barring the road to the coast, the party embarked on 
canoes on a river which Mackenzie named the Salmon 
River, because of the presence of that fish in great 
abundance. 

Then onwards down river for the sea — the great sea 
which no traveller overland had yet seen ! 

. . . And the day came; it was July 20, 1793, when 
Mackenzie saw the gleam of the blue sea. . . . 

He had won through ! 

His canoes entered an arm of the sea near King 
Island. 

He did some surveying during that first day on the 
coast, and while doing so had to run the risk of being 
attacked by the Indians, who were anything but 
friendly. This was on the Sunday, and that night was 
spent on a rock, which seemed about the safest spot 
around, but which the Indians, according to one of his 
guides, were determined to attack. Mackenzie succeeded 
in quieting his panic-stricken men, and prepared a warm 
reception for the Indians, who, however, did not attack. 
Afterwards the pioneer set his mark upon the west coast 
of Canada. In vermilion, or red clay, he inscribed the 
fact of his discovery : 

"Alexander Mackenzie, from Canada, by land, the 
E 



50 The Boy's Book of Pioneers 

twenty-second of July, one thousand seven hundred and 
ninety-three." 

And then, with a last look at the sea, to reach which 
he had toiled so manfully, so arduously, the sea which 
many before him had sought to find and had failed, the 
pioneer turned homewards, having accomplished what 
he set out to do. 

The return journey was not without its adventures, 
the most serious being almost at the beginning, when 
he was attacked by a crowd of natives while he was 
well in advance of his men. He cowed some of the 
Indians with his gun ; but a brawny rascal seized him 
from behind, and Mackenzie, who lost his cloak and 
hat, had to draw his sword and face the yelling crowd — 
one man against a multitude. It was a perilous time, 
but the bold white man feared nothing, and at the 
point of his sword kept off the horde until his men came 
up. Then, determined to uphold the dignity of the 
white man, Mackenzie and his men went into the Indian 
camp, demanding compensation and the return of the 
hat and cloak which had been stolen from him in the 
scrap I 

Mackenzie got all he asked for, and then, leaving 
the village, set off on the march over the mountains, 
reaching the fur-trading fort on August 24, 1793. 

That journey of eleven months won him fame, for he 
was the first white man who had succeeded in crossing 
North America from the Atlantic to the Pacific, north of 
Mexico, and it had been a journey full of adventure, 
difficulty, and obstacles. He had pioneered in truth, for 
the discoveries he had made of further unknown rivers 
and of the way through the Rocky Mountains solved a 
problem that had baffled men for centuries. For here 
was a north-west passage in very truth ! 



PIONEERS OF SCIENCE 

Peril and Perseverance Count in the Laboratory as much 
as in the Wilds 

THE study and the laboratory have their pioneers 
as much as the wild places of the earth, and in 
many respects the geographical discoverer, the com- 
mercial pioneer, and so on, have to own to a great 
indebtedness to the men who potter about amongst 
tubes and finger queer-looking wires or concoct strange 
mixtures in jars — often playing with death. 

For the scientific pioneer has perils as great as, and 
often greater than, the man who slings his rifle over 
his shoulder, gathers a crowd of natives around him, 
and swings out into an unknown country. Often they 
are greater perils, because, with a quick eye and presence 
of mind, a man has a fair chance in the wild places, 
whereas he who tampers with the hidden forces of 
Nature never knows what is before him. 

Take, for example. Sir James Simpson, the man who 
proved the value of anaesthetics to destroy pain. He 
tried all kinds of therapeutic agents, experimented 
perilously, and finally hit upon chloroform, which had 
been discovered at about the same time by Liebig and 
Soubeiran, as the most suitable agent. Simpson took 
the new fluid, tested it, as he had tested many other 
things, upon himself, and wellnigh paid the penalty 
for doing so. On more than one occasion he was very 
ill from the effects of the drug. Once his butler burst 
into his room and found the doctor lying unconscious 
on the floor. "He'll kill himsel' yet wi' thae experi- 

51 



52 The Boy's Book of Pioneers 

ments," said the servant, "and he's a big fule, for they'll 
never find onything better nor chlory." 

Other surgeons had been experimenting, with but 
little success, and Simpson had proved that anaesthetics 
were a matter of practical surgery ; but his very success 
brought additional pain to sufferers. Because surgery 
was safer, there were more surgical cases, and instead of 
folks dying under the surgeon's knife they died after 
the operation from gangrene setting in. So experi- 
menters began their work. Joseph Lister and Louis 
Pasteur struck out on different lines, which converged 
into one great healing science. Pasteur studied 
microbes, and proved that foreign organisms con- 
taminated certain solids and liquids, which, if not 
affected by these microbes, would remain pure. That 
was a step towards safe surgery, though few realised it 
until Lister, who had been studying microbes which 
attacked wounds^ saw the inwardness of Pasteur's dis- 
covery. His theory was, crudely put, "Kill the 
microbes of gangrene at the very place where they do 
their fell work." So he applied carbolic acid to wounds 
made by the surgeon's knife, with good results, although 
there was much more to be done before anaesthetics and 
antiseptics could be said to have joined forces. In the 
end Lister perfected his principle. Instead of applying 
a steriliser to the wound to kill microbes brought in 
contact with it, the microbe was kept away. Thrs was 
done by sterilising the instruments — everything that 
went near the wound. These discoveries of Simpson, 
Lister and Pasteur revolutionised the science of sur- 
gery, and have made the most astounding operations 
possible. 

Still keeping to the field of medical discoveries, 
there are some more remarkable things of which to tell. 
We shall read in other chapters of this book of men 
who went pioneering in Africa for geographical and 



Pioneers of Science 53 

commercial purposes. Here is the story of a man who 
went there for a medical purpose. The West Coast has 
long been called the White Man's Grave, and Dr. 
Dutton, of the School of Tropical Medicine, Liverpool, 
devoted himself to the study of the microbe which had 
taken so heavy a toll of white men. He went where the 
microbes thrived best, where the death-roll was greatest. 
He went as the blazer of a trail of health, lived 
amongst the people who toiled in the midst of death, 
experimented with men who were attacked by the dread 
sleeping sickness, the scourge of the West Coast. He 
sought the reason, the cause of it all, and found it — 
the first step towards success in treating of disease. 
When you know your foe you can devise a way of 
baffling him. . . . But Dr. Dutton, successful in thus 
attacking the sinister foe, was himself attacked, and 
died a martyr's death in the cause of science. 

Another baffling mystery of medical science was 
solved by the heroic devotion of a young doctor. As 
the sleeping sickness was the scourge of the West 
Coast of Africa, so malaria was the scourge of India — 
millions of people died from it every year. Major 
Ronald Ross, a young doctor on the Indian Medical 
Staff, had seen the ravage caused by malaria, and 
exerted all his time and energy to finding a cure for it — 
nay, more than a cure, a preventive. Theory had it that 
the poison was introduced into the human body by a 
parasite of a mosquito, and it was to discover this 
parasite that Ross toiled hard and long. 

Considering that there are some hundreds of varieties 
of mosquitoes, it is not difficult to imagine the work 
before Ross. What he did was to study the mosquito 
in every variety that came under his notice, and in the 
end what he did not know about the "fiend" was not 
worth knowing. What was the result ? This : he could 
find no trace of the parasite he sought. The reason was 



54 The Boy's Book of Pioneers 

a simple one : he had not yet found the mosquito which 
carried the parasite. It was a terror that flew by night 
and hid during the day. It was disheartening this toil- 
ing in malarial districts without any tangible result, 
without success seeming any nearer; but the plucky 
doctor, enthusiastic despite his apparent failure, kept at 
his self-imposed task, and was rewarded, for the time 
came when he found a new -mosquito, upon whose 
abdomen was a tiny excrescence that none of the others 
had. What was it? Just when Ross felt that he was 
within an ace of the discovery of what he sought he 
was moved to a part of the country happily free from the 
pestilence of malaria. 

Never was man so disappointed at his fate, and 
never was man so overjoyed when the influence of 
friends who knew how near he had possibly been to 
success got him sent to Calcutta for the purpose of 
continuing his investigations. 

The result was, after months of labour, that Ross 
proved that the excrescence on the mosquito was the 
parasite of malaria. 

And Ross did more than that : he showed the world 
how to prevent malaria. In much the same way that 
Lister had said : ** Kill the microbes," so preventing the 
microbes from reaching the wound, so Ross lifted up 
his voice and cried : "Prevent the mosquito from laying 
its eggs. Clean out your cesspools, drain your marshes, 
where the scourge has its breeding places." 

What the labours of Ross have meant to the world 
it is impossible to say. This can be said, however, that 
the death-rate from malaria is nothing to what it was; 
and it is highest where Ross's advice is not carried out. 
He showed that petroleum was a destroyer of the 
destroyer, and the value of this to commerce, without 
going to any higher scale, is evidenced by the fact that 
the great Panama Canal was built by the application of 



Pioneers of Science 55 

his principle. The malaria patches of the Isthmus had 
made work in the country impossible, but when the 
builders of the Panama got to work they sent before 
them men armed with queer-looking sprays which 
covered the places with petroleum, and a land which 
had been a death-trap became almost a health resort. 

Leaving the sphere of medical science, we shall find 
in other fields pioneers equally persistent, equally heroic 
in the cause of science. 

In the old days men who knew more than their 
fellows, and spoke of their knowledge, ran the risk of 
being helped off the mortal coil. When men began first 
to suggest that the world was round and not flat they 
were regarded at least as blasphemers. Peter of Abano, 
who dared to suggest this, was condemned to death, but 
escaped a martyr's end by dying naturally. Cecco 
d'Ascoli, for the same reason, was burned at the stake 
when he was seventy years of age; and Columbus 
pottered about from Court to Court trying to get 
someone to back him financially in his purpose to prove 
that the earth was not a flat plane. 

Copernicus, the Pole, had an idea that the sun and 
the planets did not revolve round the earth as common 
belief had it, but he kept his secret for thirty years, not 
daring to publish it for fear of the death penalty that 
he would receive at the hands of the theologians. 
When he did get it printed no publisher would publish 
it, and when he died, in his bed, and not at the stake, 
as would have been his fate if the truth had been 
known, he held in his hands a mutilated edition of his 
work. 

But the seed sown by Copernicus bore fruit. Brave 
men dared to believe him and to assert their belief. 
Bruno paid for his temerity by dying at the stake; 
Galileo fought for years to prove, as he did prove, that 
it was correct. The Pope, the Inquisition, all the 



56 The Boy's Book of Pioneers 

forces of ignorance combined against him and held oiit 
their terrors to him, but he went on with his work, 
risking his life in doing so. But the powers that were 
arrayed against him were too great; as an old man he 
recanted under compulsion, and even then persecution 
of the brave old scientist did not cease. In prison or 
in exile, with disease eating his life out, with blindness 
upon him, he was regarded as beyond the pale — the 
man who dared to teach that which was different from 
what everyone else believed ! 

Copernicus, Bruno, Galileo — these three suffered for 
their heroism in maintaining what they knew was true; 
but out of their suffering was born the new science. 

Another scientist, in a different sphere, was Hum- 
phry Davy, who experimented upon himself with 
nitrous oxide gas. It had been regarded with horror, 
for from its effects upon small animals it was imagined 
that it contained the "very principle of the plague 
itself." Not long before a French scientist had 
succumbed to another kind of poisonous gas with which 
he had been testing, but Davy resolved to experiment 
with nitrous oxide. He was only a youngster, but, to 
compare the effects of the gas with those of ordinary 
stimulants, he confined himself to his room, where he 
became intoxicated to an alarming and dangerous 
degree, then he placed himself in a box for seventy- 
five minutes, during which sixty quarts of the gas were 
introduced, and then, when he came out, he breathed in 
twenty quarts of nitrous oxide I 

He proved man's immunity to nitrous oxide, but it 
was many years (long after Davy had finished his work 
and "gone over") before it came into general use as an 
anaesthetic. But his experiments had another result in 
a different direction. After a great explosion in a 
colliery he was asked to investigate the subject of fire- 
damp. He made many experiments with gases before 



Pioneers of Science 57 

he perfected his safety-lamp : "a gauze of wire, whose 
meshes were only one twenty-second of an inch in 
diameter, which stopped the flame and prevented the 
explosion." Davy believed that this lamp, with its 
candle inside the wire gauze, might safely be intro- 
duced into mines filled with fire-damp, and he entered 
upon his experiments below ground in the spirit in 
which he had tackled those with nitrous oxide. He went 
boldly into mines filled with fire-damp, and, carrying 
his lamp, proved that he had invented a light which 
could be safely carried underground. Supposing Davy 
had been wrong ? . . . There would have been another 
martyr to science, but Davy was willing to risk his life 
to prove whether he was right or wrong, and his success 
marked a new epoch in mining. 

A mere list of great scientific discoverers and 
mechanical inventors — all of them pioneers in the cause 
of civilisation — would take pages on pages. There 
would be Watt and the steam engine ; Parsons and the 
steam turbine ; Hargreaves and the spinning jenny ; 
Singer and the sewing machine; Edison and Graham 
Bell and their telephone ; Marconi and his wireless — 
the possibilities of which have yet to be realised to the 
full ; Bessemer and cheap steel ; Westinghouse and the 
brake which has made travel safer; Sir William Crookes 
and the tubes he invented, making scientific experiments 
of a particularly valuable kind possible; Rontgen, 
Becquerel and Curie and their discoveries in connection 
with radio-activity. All these are but a few, taken 
haphazard, and every one of them is a pioneer, blazing 
a trail along which humankind travels to health and 
happiness and wealth. 

The stories of some of these men are full of the 
exhilarating influence that spurs on others to be up 
and doing. Edison, for instance. There is a man who, 
beginning life as a newspaper boy on an American 



58 The Boy's Book of Pioneers 

railway train, started a newspaper which he printed and 
sold on the train ! From printing to telegraphy, as 
an operator; from operator to inventor, the first in- 
vention being a repeater which made it possible to 
send messages from line to line without the aid of an 
operator — no small item, that. From this small be- 
ginning he pushed on, with indomitable will and 
wonderful energy, tackling the problem of the trans- 
mission of speech along wires, the problem of electric 
light, of the talking machine, and a host of others, 
most of which he solved. And this man's only educa- 
tion, beyond that which he gave himself, was that given 
him by his mother. 

He is more than a pioneer in science : he is a 
pioneer in the way to get on. 

So also were others of the men of invention. Ark- 
wright was fifty before he had time to think about 
learning to spell, yet he succeeded in doing so great a 
good for others that he could say that he had kept a 
pledge that he once made — that his inventions would 
earn more than enough to pay off the National Debt ! 

George Stephenson, too, ambitious to make engines 
that would do something worth while, was handicapped 
by his illiteracy. He couldn't read — and he was at 
work. So, when other youngsters reckon they've 
finished learning, young Stephenson began, paying a 
hard-earned fourpence each week to be taught. He 
learnt — read what he wanted to read, studied mechanical 
movement, steam, and so forth, and gave us the railway. 

It is well for us to realise this : that so many of the 
pioneers by whose work the world has benefited were 
men who began low down in the scale of education 
and opportunity, and yet, withal, persevered, worked, 
in season and out of season, because they saw that by 
toil comes success. 



THE ROMANCE OF THE NIGER 

The Perils of the Quest of Timbuctu 

AFRICA has held many a mystery for the ex- 
.plorer; through its vast wilds have drifted 
rumours of wonderful cities, marvellous rivers, snow- 
capped mountains in the tropics, and so forth ; a hunter, 
a trader, a missionary, touching the fringe of the 
unknown has had his imagination fired by some inco- 
herent story told him by natives who have heard from 
other natives of this, or that, or the other. And so the 
great continent has been opened. 

Timbuctu is a name that was conjured with for 
centuries — the far-off, hidden away, inaccessible as 
Lhasa itself. The tales told of it in the days long ago 
spoke of gilded roofs — a city of wealth and great im- 
portance. So hardy pioneers bethought themselves of 
cutting a way through jungle forest, across rivers and 
over mountains. They went — and some came back, and 
some did not. As soon as one man failed by striking 
from the north, Egypt or Tripoli, another would essay 
the task by going from the west, and met with as much 
a success as those who had thought to find the fabled 
city by sailing up the Gambia, such as Captain Hough- 
ton who, prior to the voyage of Mungo Park, had fallen 
a victim, in the year 1790, to robbers in the great 
Sahara Desert. 

Our present story deals with Park's journey, the 
purpose of which was, as stated by himself, "to pass on 
to the River Niger, either by way of Bambouk, or by 
such other route as should be found most convenient. 

59 



6o The Boy's Book of Pioneers 

That I should ascertain the course and, if possible, the 
rise and termination of that river. That I should use 
my utmost exertions to visit the principal towns or 
cities in its neighbourhood, particularly Timbuctu and 
Houssa, and that I should be afterwards at liberty to 
return to Europe, either by way of the Gambia or by 
such other route as, under all the then existing circum- 
stances of my situation and prospects, should appear to 
me to be most desirable." 

A pretty wide programme, which Mungo Park pro- 
ceeded to carry out by starting from Portsmouth on 
May 22, 1795, arriving, a month later, at Jillifrey, on 
the north bank of the Gambia. Then up the river to 
Jonkakonda, thence to Pisania, where he put up with 
Dr. Laidley, one of the three white men then living 
there. Here he set to work to learn the Mandingo 
language, incidentally catching fever, which laid him 
low for a good time. On recovering he struck inland 
without waiting for a caravan. A solitary white man, 
he had with him half a dozen attendants of various 
degrees of intelligence; and so foolhardy did Dr. Laid- 
ley and the other white men consider him that they 
accompanied him a couple of days on his journey, fully 
expecting that that would be the last they would see 
of him. 

For the fate of Captain Houghton still lingered in 
their minds, and Mungo Park himself was quite 
acquainted with it, although it did not deter him from 
going on. 

When, on December 3, Laidley and the others 
turned back, the explorer struck into the boundless 
jungle, "the inhabitants of which were strangers to 
civilised life, and to most of whom a white man was the 
object of curiosity and plunder." 

His troubles began almost at once : a crowd of 
natives barred the way, and demanded taxes in the name 



The Romance of the Niger 6i 

of the King of Walli. He paid — there was little else to 
do if he wanted to go on. 

When he reached Medina, the capital of the King of 
Woolli, he was well received, and given a guide, and 
that worthy accompanied him to Koojar, the last town 
of Woolli, whence Park struck out across the desert 
between Woolli and Bondou. From Tallika, in the 
latter country, the little party, reinforced by a few other 
native travellers, proceeded amicably until two of the 
latter began to quarrel over something or other, and the 
white man had to take severe measures with them. 

At Fatteconda Mungo Park was received by the 
king, a rascal who had plundered Houghton, and of 
whom the explorer was rather suspicious. He wore his 
new coat he had brought with him to save it from being 
stolen, which didn't prevent him from having to give it 
to the king as a present, for, said Mungo Park, "The 
request of an African prince, in his own dominions, 
particularly when made to a stranger, comes little short 
of a command. . . . And as it was against my wish to 
offend him by a refusal, I very quietly took off my 
coat, the only good one in my possession, and laid it 
at his feet." 

Good, however, came out of the evil, for the king 
gave the stranger stores of provisions, and allowed him 
to proceed on his journey unmolested and unplundered. 
At Joag, however, the frontier town of a kingdom named 
Kajaaga, things grew lively. It was Christmas Day, 
but instead of peace there was trouble. First of all some 
horsemen came into the town, looked in on Mungo 
Park as he lay on his camp bed, and tried to steal his 
musket. Failing in that, they sat by his side until 
dawn, and the natives who had accompanied Mungo 
Park so far came to him with bad news : more horsemen 
were swooping down towards Joag, looking for the 
white man. Mungo Park wondered why ; he soon knew. 



62 The Boy's Book of Pioneers 

for the horsemen, ten in number, arrived, off-saddled, 
and sat themselves down with the other crowd, making 
about twenty men, each armed with a musket, and form- 
ing a circle round the explorer. 

After a while, upon the request of the traveller for 
an explanation, they told him that the king was angry 
at his having dared violate his territory without receiv- 
ing permission, the penalty being the forfeit of all his 
goods. They demanded that he go with them to the 
king, who was at a place called Maana ; if he would not 
go willingly, then they would force him to. 

Mungo Park said he would go, but he meant to get 
out of the trouble somehow, for one of his natives and 
the landlord of the place where he was Staying assured 
him that once he arrived at Maana he would be robbed 
of everything of value; and the native attendant was 
sure that he himself would be kept as a slave. 
Fortunately for the explorer, the nephew of a friendly 
native king who was at enmity with the King of Ka- 
jaaga, came up during the day and offered to escort 
him to Kasson, which offer, needless to say, Mungo 
Park accepted with great thankfulness, and after a very 
difficult and troublesome journey, arrived at Kasson. 

Here he found that his position was not less critical 
than it could have been at Maana, for he had to pay 
heavy tribute — his stores were already much depleted 
by pilfering at Joag — and his horse was borrowed by 
the chief, who kept it so long that Mungo Park thought 
he would never return it. The tribute, by the way, was 
not so much paid as stolen, for the natives insisted upon 
having all his stores exhibited and taking everything 
they fancied ! 

All kinds of delays now held up the traveller, the 
chief being that a state of war existed between certain 
of the tribes through whose territories his route lay. 
However, war or no war, he decided to go on when he 



The Romance of the Niger 63 

received permission to do so, and left Soolo, a small 
village, where he had met a Gambia trader, a friend of 
Dr. Laidley, and, passing fugitives fleeing before one 
of the warring tribes, struck out for the capital of 
Kaarta. It was a hazardous journey : there were hills 
to climb, precipices to skirt, thieving landlords to evade 
or outwit. Kaarta was one of the tribes at war, and the 
king tried to prevail upon Mungo Park to return owing 
to the unsettled state of the country, Bambarra, 
through which he must pass, being in a serious con- 
dition of unrest. The king, when he saw that the 
explorer was bent on proceeding, gave him a guide to 
Jarra, the frontier town of the "Moorish kingdom of 
Ludamur," and Mungo Park managed to slip away from 
Kaarta in time to miss the fighting that very soon took 
place there. While he was at a little village in Kaarta 
the Moors from Ludamur came on a cattle raid, and 
carried off many head of cattle, besides wounding at 
least one native, whom Park tended as well as he could, 
although the fellow died. The way was now infested 
with bandits, and it was necessary to travel at night to 
evade them. He was, in fact, in the district in which 
Captain Houghton had been done to death by thievish 
Moors, and it seemed that a like fate was about to be 
meted out to Mungo Park, for, when he arrived at a 
little village some distance from Jarra, the Moors sur- 
rounded the hut he lodged in and, he says, "treated me 
with the greatest insolence ; they hissed, shouted, and 
abused me; they even spat in my face, with a view to 
irritate me and afford them a pretext for seizing my 
baggage." 

This did not have the desired effect, so they adopted 
other measures. They told him he was a Christian, and 
as all Christians were legitimate prey, they promptly 
snatched away his bundles, opened them, and took any- 
thing they had a fancy for. 



64 The Boy's Book of Pioneers 

Such treatment scared the few attendants Mungo 
Park had with him, and they resolved to desert. The 
explorer pleaded with them to stay, but they refused, 
hoping he would return with them to Jarra. Park, 
however, was firm in his intention to go on, and set out 
alone — one white man to face all the dangers of an 
unknown country and a land full of thieves and 
murderers I He had not gone far when one of his 
"boys" came running after him, and later prevailed 
upon a negro to throw in his lot with the master. 

Then these three went forward, only to be held up 
when a couple of days' journey from Goomba by a 
party of Moors, and the explorer and his "boy" (the 
negro had promptly fled at the approach of the Moors) 
were carried back over a good part of the ground they 
had covered. After several minor adventures Mungo 
Park was brought to Benowm, the camp of Ali, an Arab 
chief, who had ordered his capture. While here he 
suffered various indignities at the hands of the Moors, 
and on the first night was guarded like a malefactor. 
One of the Moors crept into the hut in the dead of the 
night, bent either on stealing something or murdering 
the white man, who jumped up just in time and seized 
him. The startled marauder stumbled over the "boy," 
and fell plump upon a wild hog which had beeai 
tethered to the hut. The beast bit the blackamoor, who 
kicked up such a hullabaloo that everyone thought the 
white man had escaped, and horses were mounted to 
pursue him. The incident ended all right, however, 
and Mungo Park was turned into royal barber! He 
bungled his first job, cutting the head of the young 
prince he was shaving, and promptly lost his job ! 
Which he was glad of. . . . 

While he was in the Moors' camp his interpreter, 
who had been dispatched to Gambia with papers, etc., 
was captured by the Arabs and brought in ; and Ali had 



The Romance of the Niger 65 

everything belonging to the white man opened and 
examined, and then had them taken to his own tent for 
safety, as he assured the white man, who knew different. 
One thing the Arab chief would not keep, and that was 
the compass. He wanted to know why the needle always 
pointed to "the great desert" — a mysterious phrase 
to Mungo Park, who would not confess his ignorance, 
however, and assured the chief that his mother lived 
beyond the Sahara, and that while she was alive the 
piece of iron would point that way. It was magic — black 
magic ! The chief gave back the compass. 

A council sat to consider the case of the white man, 
who gathered that the pleasant black gentlemen had 
decided to put his eyes out — when Fatima, wife of the 
chief, had seen him whole. Mungo Park was more than 
worried over this news, and, to test the feeling of the 
Moors, asked permission to go back to Jarra. It was 
refused, and for many weeks he was kept a prisoner, 
with the dread of death hanging over him. Then he 
caught fever ; later, because he took a stroll outside the 
camp, he was ill-treated, his captors thinking he was 
trying to escape. He was put on show like a wild 
beast, and he was more often than not neglected as 
regarded food. 

Then the Bambarra warriors approached Ludamur, 
on war intent, and the camp was struck. The whole 
crowd of Moors moved far into their country, taking 
Mungo Park with them to All's new camp. Here he 
met Fatima, the lady who was to see him before he 
lost his eyes — a pleasant prospect. . . . And he con- 
sidered that his fate was approaching, when political 
troubles intervened to save him, and, on his asking 
Fatima, who had great sway, for permission to return 
to Jarra, he was astonished, and overwhelmed with joy, 
to receive it I 

They robbed him of everything, except his inter- 

F 



66 The Boy's Book of Pioneers 

preter and his horse; even the poor boy Demba was 
kept as a slave, despite all protests. 

From Jarra the explorer had to flee with the natives 
before the victorious army of the King of Kaarta, who 
was driving everyone before him. He was captured 
again by Moors, and only succeeded in escaping by the 
merest luck, slipping out in the night alone, his in- 
terpreter having refused to go with him. He was held 
up by Moorish bandits, who, however, after robbing 
him of his cloak, let him go, much to his relief, for he 
thought they had been sent to arrest him again. His 
objective was Bambarra, but it was a long way, he was 
alone, and had neither food nor drink, nor means to 
obtain them. That was a fearful journey : the heat was 
terrific. He was hungry and thirsty, his horse was 
so fatigued that it could not carry him, and he plodded 
along by its side until he dropped in his tracks and 
became unconscious. It was night time before he re- 
covered, and then he summoned every ounce of energy 
left, determined to push on as far as his drooping limbs 
would carry him. So these weary travellers, horse and 
man, a tragic pair, plunged through the desert, seeking 
water. The explorer's throat was parched, his tongue 
swollen and his eyes were bloodshot. He scarcely knew 
whether he wanted to live or to die. 

And then — hope I The wind howled amongst the 
bushes, herald, so Mungo Park thought, of rain. He 
opened his dry mouth, expecting to receive the rain- 
drops that would mean the difference between life and 
death. 

Instead, the wind brought a sand storm. . . . 

It lasted an hour, during which the dismayed and 
distraught man sheltered as best he could behind bushes 
to prevent being suffocated. 

At last the sand storm abated, and in its place the 
heavens dropped rain. Never did man hail a storm as 



The Romance of the Niger 67 

Mungo Park did that one : it meant joy, it meant wet 
lips and an eased throat — it meant life instead of death ! 
He feverishly spread out all his clean clothes on the 
sand, and let them soak up the rain, which fell for an 
hour or more, and he quenched his thirst by wringing 
and sucking the clothes. Refreshed, man and beast now 
pushed on through the night. There was no moon, and 
the explorer guided himself by his compass, looking at 
it in the flashes of lightning which ever and anon 
streaked through the sky. "The lightning becoming 
more distant," he wrote in his graphic book, " I was 
under the necessity of groping along, to the no small 
danger of my hands and eyes." 

Presently lights appeared in the distance, and 
neither knowing nor caring what they might portend, 
except that there might possibly be water and food to be 
obtained, he pressed towards them until he heard the 
lowing of herds and the voices of the shepherds. Surely, 
he told himself, it was a watering place ! Then the full 
meaning of what it might result in burst upon him : if 
they were Moors, his last plight might be worse than 
the former, and he decided to take to the woods again. 
Thirst, however, compelled him to search for the wells, 
and while doing so he was seen by a woman, who 
screamed in terror. Quick as a frightened rabbit Mungo 
Park slipped in amongst the trees, and managed to 
escape detection, and once away, followed a sound that 
was as music in his ears — the croaking of frogs in 
the distance told him that he would come across a 
water-hole. 

Sure enough, at daybreak he came to a place where 
there was water, although it was hidden by an enormous 
number of frogs, which he had to beat away with a 
branch in order that his poor horse might drink; after 
which he himself drank up the muddy water, which 
tasted like nectar. . . . 



68 The Boy's Book of Pioneers 

A few hours later he came near a small town, and 
from some negroes working in the fields learned that it 
belonged to Ali. Risking everything for the food he 
and his horse so badly needed, he went boldly into the 
town, and^^t the chief official's house was refused food. 
At some poor huts, however, an old negro woman 
spinning cotton gave him and his horse some food. 

He had to leave that place owing to the designs of 
the men to take him prisoner, and, so that they should 
not think he was running away, he struck out to the 
north, as though not going to All's place. Then, when 
he was clear of the Moors, he went into the woods 
again, hiding when danger seemed imminent, seeking 
water always, tired always, hungry ever, until he came 
to a negro town named Wawra, a Kaarta place tributary 
to the King of Bambarra, where he was well received. 

His journey from Wawra to Sego, the capital of 
Bambarra, was filled with various adventures, including 
delays caused by wild animals, among them lions, which 
infested the route, but everything paled before the great 
news that he received from the natives. "I was told," 
he says, "that I should see the Niger (which the negroes 
call Joliba, or the great water). . . . We rode through 
some marshy ground where, as I was anxiously looking 
around for the river, one of them called out : ' Geo 
affil ! ' (see the water !), and, looking forward, I saw 
with infinite pleasure the great object of my mission — 
the long-sought-for majestic Niger, glittering in the 
morning sun, as broad as the Thames at Westminster, 
and flowing slowly to the eastward. . . . The circum- 
stance of the Niger's flowing towards the east, and its 
collateral points, did not, however, excite my surprise, 
for although I had left Europe in great hesitation on 
this subject, and rather believed that it ran in the con- 
trary direction, I had made such frequent inquiries 
during my progress concerning this river, and received 



The Romance of the Niger 69 

from the negroes of different nations such clear and 
decisive assurances that its general course was towards 
the rising sun, as scarce left any doubt in my mind, 
and more especially as I knew that Major Houghton had 
collected similar information in the same manner." 

This was a great achievement of the explorer, for he 
was the first white man to set eyes upon the Niger; he 
had succeeded in one object of his expedition, and the 
fact that he had done so made him entirely forgetful of 
the hardships he had suffered, the dangers he had 
encountered. 

Mungo Park's intention now was to cross the river, 
but the King of Bambarra heard of his coming, and 
sent messengers forbidding his passage until he had 
rendered an account of himself — who he was, why he 
had come. This was very discouraging, for the ex- 
plorer had hoped that he might receive hospitality, and 
he had to spend the day in a village near by, foodless, 
shelterless, except for the shade of a tree, for no one 
would admit him to a house. He looked forward to the 
night with anything but pleasure. Fortunately, an old 
woman took compassion on him, and gave him the 
shelter of her house for the night, supplied him with 
some food. In return the white man gave her the only 
things that remained for him to show gratitude by — 
two of the four brass buttons on his waistcoat. 

Mungo Park was held up the next day in the village 
awaiting the king's pleasure, and the villagers assured 
him that he was in a sad case ! Then, the following 
morning, an official arrived to inquire what presents the 
white man had brought for the king. The white man 
was destitute, and told the messenger so. He was 
therefore made to stay where he was, pending the king's 
decision. When it arrived it was very disconcerting, 
for the messenger brought a bag of 5,000 cowries 
(worth now about half a crown !), handed them to him, 



70 The Boy's Book of Pioneers 

and told him that he must forthwith leave the country ! 
The cowries were a gift from his majesty to help him 
buy provisions on the way. . . « 

So, with a bag of cowries, a half-starved horse, the 
well-nigh starved man struck out, two days later, for 
Timbuctu, for he wa§ resolved to complete his purpose 
if possible. There was danger in proceeding : the 
Moorish sphere of influence extended well beyond 
Jenn^, and Timbuctu itself, he was told, was "in posses- 
sion of that savage and merciless people, who allow no 
Christian to live there." The idea of falling into the 
hands of the people who had treated him so shabbily, 
not to say cruelly, did not appeal to Mungo Park, 
neither did the giving up of his expedition before it was 
completed. 

So he went on — carrying his life in his hands, and 
precious little else. 

If that journey did not have as much excitement in 
some respects as the first stage of his exploration, it was 
full enough of adventure in many others; he followed 
the course of the river, riding his hack as far as possible, 
and only leaving it when it could not put one foot before 
the other. He regarded the fate of his horse as sym- 
bolic of what would most likely be his own, worn out 
by famine and fatigue as he was. Soon after this he 
canoed down river to Moorzan, a fishing town on the 
northern bank, crossing thence to Silla, and here, 
although he was only a couple of days' journey from 
Jenne, the harassed, emaciated, ragged explorer decided 
that he had reached the utmost limits of progress in the 
circumstances. He had but few of his cowries left, and 
they constituted his sole wealth; he was friendless, but 
possessed plenty of enemies, for every Moor in the 
country was opposed to white men; the tropical rains 
had set in, the land seemed a vast swamp, and he was 
eaten up with fever. In face of all these difficulties. 



The Romance of the Niger 71 

and they were but few of the total, he considered that 
he would be doing greater service by returning with the 
news of his discoveries than by pressing forward — to 
death. True, the journey back to the Gambia was no 
mean task in itself, but at least there were friends at the 
end — if the end were ever reached. 

So, contenting himself with gathering from the 
natives what information he could about the country, he 
prepared to depart. He discovered that Jenn«^ was, as 
stated, two days' journey on from Silla, that it was 
situated on a small island in the river ; that beyond this, 
another two days' journey, the river spread out into a 
lake, issuing in two branches, which unite again at a 
place called Kabra, a day's journey from Timbuctu. 
Houssa was another town he was informed of, a dis- 
tance of eleven days' journey down-stream from Kabra, 
and beyond that place no one knew anything of the 
river, what its course was, or where it emptied itself. 

With his valuable notes and his scanty supplies, 
Mungo Park at last turned back, crossing the river to 
Moorzan again, and retracing his steps southwards. 
This was on July 30, 1796, and it took him twelve 
months to make the return journey. We need not follow 
it in detail ; it was filled with adventures with natives. 
Moors, and wild animals ; he was delayed by all manner 
of things, suffered from hunger and thirst, and was 
continually attacked by fever. When yet five hundred 
miles from his destination he was robbed and stripped by 
some natives, who left him with only his trousers, two 
ragged shirts, and his hat. A pretty sad plight for any 
man I His compass was gone, he had no horse, no 
means of exchange — nothing except his indomitable 
spirit, which urged him on and on. At Bamaku he 
headed westward, intending to reach Kamalia, where he 
was compelled to stay until the rainy season was over, 
because of the swollen state of the rivers which lay in 



72 The Boy's Book of Pioneers 

the route to the coast. From Kamalia, where a kindly 
negro slave-trader named Karfa gave him assistance and 
housing, on promise of payment at the coast, he, after 
about six months, set out with Karfa's slave caravan, 
via Kinytakoro and the Jallonka Wilderness, and after 
adventures which were comparatively mild when com- 
pared with what had happened to him before, reached 
the Gambia, where the friends who had seen him depart 
inland, and who long ago had given him up for lost, 
received him joyfully, two years after. 

Eventually Mungo Park reached England, where his 
reception was pleasing to him, and his reputation and 
the discoveries he had made caused him to be put at the 
head of an expedition dispatched in 1805, to trace the 
course of the river he had discovered and to open up 
friendly relations with the natives in the country 
through which it passed. 

If Mungo Park's first exploration of the Niger had 
been unfortunate in some respects, so far as concerned 
his own discomfort and danger, this second was a 
thousand times worse. For one thing, it accomplished 
very little, except the discovery of a practical route to 
the river by which caravans could pass, and this took 
seven months. Everywhere they went the explorers 
found difficulties. The natives resented the coming of 
what was quite a formidable-looking expedition, consist- 
ing as it did of nearly fifty men, including thirty-six 
soldiers. Extortion on the part of the chiefs, bare- 
faced robbery on the part of the natives, roused the 
anger of Park and led to many affrays. The rains 
drenched the men, numbers of whom sickened and died, 
and by the time the expedition was five hundred miles 
inland there were only seven left. Still determined to 
persevere. Park pushed on to the town called Sansand- 
ing, an important market centre, where the traders 
looked jealously upon the newcomers. The explorer. 




"The whites put up a valiant fight" {see p. 73) 



The Romance of the Niger 73 

however, having received permission to build a boat, 
rigged up a ramshackle thing out of old native boats, 
and when all was ready, set off to trace the river to 
its mouth, with only four Europeans besides himself. 
Park was so full of hope that he could write home to 
his wife, sending the letter, with others, to the coast 
in charge of his interpreter, that he was "on his way 
home," meaning that he had no doubt as to where his 
journey would bring him. But Park was doomed to 
failure. After that batch of letters got through many 
months went by without the world hearing anything 
of him. Then the interpreter was sent inland to see 
if he could hear anything of the fate of the explorer, 
and the story he brought back tells practically all that 
is known. 

Park's vessel had often been attacked, and the end 
came soon after leaving Houssa, where a native king 
had sent an armed force to wrest from Park the presents 
which had not been freely offered. The odds were too 
great, and although the explorer and his few remain- 
ing whites put up a valiant fight, it was all too evident 
that there was no hope. Park and one of his white 
comrades, followed almost immediately afterwards by 
another, jumped into the river, and all were drowned. 

Following this disastrous expedition, other explorers 
set out in quest of Timbuctu, all of them failing until, 
in 1825, Major Laing, starting from Tripoli, crossed 
the desert, after many hairbreadth escapes from death 
at the hands of nomadic tribes. Once, indeed, he was 
left for dead, having no fewer than twenty-four wounds ! 
He recovered, however, and eventually reached Tim- 
buctu on August 18, 1826. There he remained for a 
month, but eventually was ordered to leave the city, 
and, having received a promise from some nomads to 
conduct him across the desert, set out on his return 



74 The Boy's Book of Pioneers 

journey. But his guides betrayed him, and two days 
after leaving Timbuctu he was murdered. 

After Laing went Caillie, who lived in Timbuctu 
for some time, and brought back a good deal of informa- 
tion. Then, after Caillie, several other explorers tried 
to trace the Niger to its mouth. It was left to Richard 
Lander and his brother John, in 1830, to complete the 
work. They started from Badagry, on the coast, and 
made their way far inland to Bussa, on the Niger, and 
then, with two canoes, descended the river, arriving, 
after a journey full of adventure, in the Niger Delta, 
the first men to travel down the great river. They had 
solved the problem that had worried geographers for 
many years, and had traced the course of the mysterious 
river about which Park and many others had written. 

And the result was that merchants in England, see- 
ing the vast possibilities of the country, with a river 
that was a navigable commercial waterway for a 
wonderful country, sent out their traders and began 
to open up the place to trade. And the pioneers who 
had risked their lives — and in many cases had given 
them — had not toiled in vain. A new market was given 
to the world as a result of their efforts. 



THE WHITE RAJAH 

The Pioneer Work of Sir James Brooke, of Sarawak 

THE way in which James Brooke, an obscure 
Britisher, born in Benares in 1803, became ruler 
of Sarawak in 1841 is one of the epics of pioneering. 
It was not a case of a man setting out to secure for him- 
self the benefits of power by intrigue, but of a man 
honest in intention, sincere in desire to do good, having 
handed over to him the destiny of a whole district in 
Borneo; and it is a case of a man doing his utmost to 
achieve the best results both for his new "kingdom" 
and for the Empire to which he was proud to belong. 

Here's the story in brief : 

Brooke knew the East, knew its people and their 
psychology as perhaps few men in his day did, for, 
being born in India and spending the first twelve years 
of his life there, going back again when he was sixteen, 
and serving as an ensign, then as a lieutenant, and later 
as sub-assistant commissary-general, he had splendid 
opportunities for studying the modes of thought of the 
people with whom he lived. He was a gallant soldier, 
fearless almost to the degree of being foolhardy ; he 
shirked no danger, and it was while leading a charge in 
battle that he was wounded by a shot in the lungs, 
which put him out of action for a long time ; and when 
he was sufficiently recovered to return to duty he was 
wrecked on the way and held up so long that his term of 
leave had expired, and he had to resign his commission. 

With his various adventures after that, until he went 
to Sarawak, we have no space to deal, except to say that 

75 



76 The Boy's Book of Pioneers 

he tried trading in the Far East, without the best of 
results; then, being a gentleman of leisure, with thirty 
thousand pounds left him by his father, he decided to 
go upon a voyage of discovery in Eastern waters. This 
was in 1838, and he resolved to cruise amongst the 
islands of the Eastern Archipelago, his main object 
being to visit Marudu Bay, in the north of Borneo. 

The gods willed otherwise. From Singapore he went 
to Sarawak, in Borneo, as the bearer of thanks from 
the Chamber of Commerce to Rajah Muda Hassim (the 
Sultan of Brunei's uncle), who had befriended a ship- 
wrecked crew. This apparently trivial event changed 
the whole course of Brooke's life. 

He arrived at the mouth of the Sarawak River, sailed 
up it at the invitation of Muda Hassim, conveyed the 
messages with which he had been entrusted, and found 
himself mightily interested in the country. He was well 
received for one thing, except that Pangeran Makota, 
Governor of that district, suspected some ulterior motive 
behind the visit of the white man. 

Muda Hassim gave Brooke permission to explore 
wherever he liked in Borneo. He took advantage of 
this, and when, after a time, he returned to Singapore, 
it was with news of great possibilities in Borneo. Plis 
friendly reception meant that British traders might go 
with safety to what was literally a new market. Brooke 
had a theory that a proper system of suzerainty over 
native States would bring good to them, and incidentally 
strengthen the British position in the East. His idea 
was that Britain should "take possession of Marudu Bay, 
establish herself strongly there, be constantly supported 
by the navy, and from thence the Governor, with 
diplomatic powers, could visit all the independent chiefs 
and make such treaties with them as would prevent their 
being absorbed by other European States. His policy 
was of the most liberal kind; he would have sought no 



The White Rajah 77 

exclusive trade privileges, but he would have preserved 
their political independence. He would have established 
in the more important States carefully-selected English 
agents, to encourage the chiefs in useful reforms and to 
prevent restrictions on commerce." 

Such were the pioneering principles of James Brooke, 
and it will be seen that they were very sound. 

He arrived the second time in Sarawak in August, 
1840, where he found that a rebellion, which had pre- 
vented him from visiting the interior on his previous 
visit, had not yet been quelled. It should be explained 
that although the Sultan claimed to hold sway over all 
Borneo, yet the various chiefs did not take much heed of 
him, and practically did as they liked; and the rebellion 
had come about as the result of the oppressive rule of 
Pangeran Makota, who seems to have been the finest 
person to make a muddle of government, and the last 
man in the world to cope with a rebellion. 

Brooke found that the rebels were besieged in a 
fortress inland, but the investing army was stationed at 
a place seven miles away ! It is obvious how unlikely it 
was that the rebels would be brought to the knee by 
such methods, and Brooke, by permission of Muda 
Hassim, decided to visit headquarters and have a 
straight talk with Pangeran Makota. That he was em- 
powered to do this so soon after becoming acquainted 
with Muda Hassim shows how the force of his person- 
ality must have impressed the native; his sincerity, his 
ideals, had won him favour and confidence. 

When he arrived at the army's camp he found the 
men kicking up their heels in idleness, no effort being 
made to come to grips with the rebels, and the war 
seemed likely to go on for years. Brooke tried to get 
Makota to move forward and invest the fortress pro- 
perly, but the obstinate Governor point-blank refused; 
and, thoroughly disgusted, the white man returned to 



78 The Boy's Book of Pioneers 

Muda Hassim, and said he was going away at once. 
He had come to do good to Borneo, and could not 
because of the unsettled state of the country, which 
might be changed entirely by vigorous action. 

Muda Hassim was heartbroken, and pleaded with 
Brooke not to forsake him ; so, scarcely daring to hope 
that he could do anything with Pangeran Makota, the 
white man went back to the army and began a speeding- 
up process, which promised fine results. Clothed, as 
the white man was, in some sort of authority from Muda 
Hassim, Makota had to do something, and allowed his 
men to act upon the instructions of Brooke, approaching 
nearer and nearer to the fortress. This was done by the 
building of successive stockades, each one nearer to the 
enemy. When they were completed, the nearest being 
less than three hundred yards away, Brooke brought up 
some six-pounder guns from his yacht the Royalist, and 
pumped away at the defences of the rebels. Then he 
called upon Makota to send his men to the assault, but 
the vacillations of the Borneans resulted in no assault 
being made. 

Everything had been so propitious for a smashing 
blow at the rebels that the war could have been ended 
right away. Utterly disgusted with everything, Brooke 
drew off his guns and went back to his yacht, determined 
to sail away. 

Then a remarkable thing happened. Muda Hassim 
recognised in the Englishman one who had power and 
whose presence in the country would do a great deal of 
good. He "begged, entreated me," said Brooke, "to 
stay, and offered me the country, its government and 
its trade, if I would only stop and not desert him " ! 

What clearer evidence does one need of Brooke's 
compelling personality ? 

He stayed, not because of the great offer made to 
him, but because of the impasse at which Muda Hassim 



The White Rajah 79 

had arrived ; in fact, he did not accept the gift offered to 
him, but he went back to the army with a determination 
to make things move and get the job over. 

He was accompanied by Pangeran Budrudin, 
Hassim's brother, who was an individual Pangeran 
Makota dared not try to frustrate. Brooke began work 
immediately. The army, which had been wondering 
what on earth to do next, was set to the task, guns were 
mounted in one of the stockades, a bombardment was 
begun, and under cover of it an advance was made, 
although Makota tried to impede progress by omitting 
to have paths made. Brooke went where there were no 
paths, and the rebels would have been surprised had not 
one of the chiefs begun to say his prayers at the moment 
when victory was at hand 1 Instantly a rapid fire was 
opened and the assault was a failure. Brooke was in 
despair, especially when Pangeran Budrudin was re- 
called; but he had set his hand to the plough and would 
not turn back. 

We will let Brooke himself tell the rest of the story,* 
as found in his journals quoted by Keppel : 

"Amongst the straggling arrivals I may mention," 
he wrote, "Pangeran Dallam, with a number of men, 
consisting of the Orang Bintulu, Meri, Muka and 
Kayan Dyaks from the interior. Our house, or, as it 
originally stood, our shed, deserves a brief record. It 
was about twenty feet long, with a loose floor of reeds 
and an attap, or palm-leaf, roof. It served us for some 
time, but the attempts at theft obliged us to fence it in 
and divide it into apartments — one at the end served 
for Middleton, Williamson and myself. Adjoining it 
was the storeroom and hospital, and the other extreme 
belonged to the seamen. Our improvements kept pace 
with our necessities. Theft induced us to shut in our 
house at the sides, and the unevenness of the reeds 
* " The Voyage of the Dido," by Keppel. 



8o The Boy's Book of Pioneers 

suggested the advantage of laying a floor of the bark 
of trees over them, which, with mats over all, rendered 
our domicile far from uncomfortable. Our forts gradu- 
ally extended to the back of the enemy's town, on a 
ridge of swelling ground, whilst they kept pace with us 
on the same side of the river on the low ground. The 
inactivity of our troops had long become a byword 
amongst us. It was, indeed, truly vexatious, but it 
was in vain to urge them on, in vain to offer assistance, 
in vain to propose a joint attack or even to seek support 
at their hands. Promises were to be had in plenty, but 
performances never. 

"At length our leaders resolved on building a fort 
at Sekundis, thus outflanking the enemy and gaining 
the command of the upper course of the river. The post 
was certainly an important one, and in consequence 
they set about it with the happy indifference which 
characterises their proceedings. Pangeran lUudin (the 
most active amongst them) had the building of the fort, 
assisted by the Orang Kaya, Tumangong of Lundu, 
Makota, Subtu and others were at the next fort, and by 
chance I was there likewise, for it seemed to be little 
apprehended that any interruption would take place, as 
the Chinese and the greater part of the Malays had 
been left in the boats. When the fort commenced, 
however, the enemy crossed the river and divided into 
two bodies, the one keeping in check the party at 
Pangeran Gapoor's fort, whilst the other made an 
attack on the works. The ground was not unfavourable 
for their purpose, for Pangeran Gapoor's fort was 
separated from Sekundis by a belt of thick wood which 
reached down to the river's edge. Sekundis itself, 
however, stood on clear ground, as did Gapoor's fort. 
I was with Makota at the latter when the enemy 
approached through the jungle. The two parties were 
within easy speaking distance, challenging and 



The White Rajah 8i 

threatening each other, but the thickness of the jungle 
prevented our seeing or penetrating to them. When 
this body had advanced, the real attack commenced on 
Sekundis with a fire of musketry, and I was about to 
proceed to the scene, but was detained by Makota, who 
assured me that there were plenty of men, and that it 
was nothing at all. As the musketry became thicker I 
had my doubts, when a Dyak came running through 
the jungle, and with gestures of impatience and anxiety 
begged me to assist the party attacked. He had been 
sent by my old friend the Tumangong of Lundu to 
say that they could not hold the post unless supported. 
In spite of Makota's remonstrances, I struck into the 
jungle, winded through the narrow path, and, after 
crossing an ugly stream, emerged on the clear ground. 
The sight was a pretty one. To the right was the un- 
finished stockade, defended by the Tumangong; to the 
left, at the edge of the forest, about twelve or fifteen 
of our party, commanded by Illudin, whilst the enemy 
were stretched along between the points, and kept up a 
sharp-shooting from the hollow ground on the bank 
of the river. They fired and loaded and fired, and had 
gradually advanced on the stockade as the ammunition 
of our party failed, and as we emerged from the jungle 
they were within twenty or five-and-twenty yards of the 
defence. A glance immediately showed me the advantage 
of our position, and I charged with my Englishmen 
across the padi field, and the instant we appeared on 
the ridge above the river, in the hollows of which the 
rebels were seeking protection, their rout was complete. 
They scampered off in every direction, whilst the Dyaks 
and Malays pushed them into the river. Our victory 
was decisive and bloodless; the scene was changed in 
an instant, and the defeated foe lost arms and ammuni- 
tion either on the field of battle or in the river, and our 
exulting conquerors set no bounds to their triumph. 

G 



82 The Boy's Book of Pioneers 

"The next great object was to follow up the 
advantage by crossing the stream, but day after day 
brought on fresh ^elay, and Makota built a new fort 
and made a new road within a hundred yards of our 
old position. I cannot detail further our proceedings 
for many days, which consisted, on my part, in efforts 
to get something done, and on the others a close 
adherence to the old system of promising everything 
and doing nothing. The Chinese, like the Malays, 
refused to act; but on their part it was not fear but 
disinclination. By degrees, however, the preparations 
for the new fort were complete, and I had gradually 
gained over a party of the natives to my views, and 
indeed, amongst the Malays the bravest of them had 
joined themselves to us, and what was better, we had 
Datu Pangerang and thirteen Illanuns, and the 
Capitan China allowed me to take his men whenever 
I wanted them. My weight and consequence increased, 
and I rarely moved now without a long train of 
followers. The next step, whilst crossing the river was 
uncertain, was to take my guns up to Gapoor's fort, 
which was about six or seven hundred yards from the 
town, and half the distance from a rebel fort on the 
river's bank. 

"Panglima Rajah, the day after our guns were in 
battery, took it into his head to build a fort on the 
river's side, close to the town in front, and between 
two of the enemy's forts. It was a bold undertaking 
for the old man after six weeks of uninterrupted repose. 
At night, the wood being prepared, the party moved 
down, and worked so silently that they were not dis- 
covered till their defence was nearly finished, when the 
enemy commenced a general firing from all their forts, 
returned by a similar firing from all ours, none of the 
parties being quite clear what they were firing at or 
about, and the hottest from either party being equally 



The White Rajah 83 

harmless. We were at the time about going to bed 
in our habitation, but expecting some reverse I set off 
to the stockade where our guns were placed, and opened 
a fire upon the town and the stockade near us till the 
enemy's fire gradually slackened and died away. We 
then returned, and in the morning were greeted with 
the pleasing news that they had burned and deserted 
five of their forts, and left us sole occupants of the left 
bank of the river. The same day, going through the 
jungle to see one of these deserted forts, we came upon 
a party of the enemy, and had a brief skirmish with 
them before they took to flight. Nothing can be more 
unpleasant to a European than this bush-fighting, where 
he scarce sees a foe, whilst he is well aware that their 
eyesight is far superior to his own. To proceed with 
this narrative, I may say that four or five forts were 
built on the edge of the river opposite the enemy's town, 
and distant not above fifty or sixty yards. Here our 
guns were removed, and a fresh battery formed for a 
bombardment, and fire-balls essayed to ignite the houses. 
"At this time Sherif Jaffer, from Linga, arrived with 
about seventy men, Malays and Dyaks of Balow. The 
river Linga, being situated close to Seribas, and in- 
cessant hostilities being waged between the two places, 
he and his followers were both more active and warlike 
than the Borneans ; but their warfare consists of closing 
hand to hand with spear and sword. They scarcely 
understood the proper use of firearms, and were of 
little use in attacking stockades. As a negotiator, how- 
ever, the Sherif bore a distinguished part, and on his 
arrival a parley ensued, much against Makota's will, 
and some meetings took place between Jaffer and a 
brother Sherif at Siniawan, named Moksain. After ten 
days' delay nothing came of it, though the enemy 
betrayed great desire to yield. This negotiation being 
at an end, we had a day's bombardment, and a fresh 



84 The Boy's Book of Pioneers 

treaty brought about thus : Makota being absent in 
Sarawak, I received a message from Sherif Jaffer and 
Pangeran Subtu to say that they wished to meet me, 
and on my consenting they stated that Sherif Jaffer felt 
confident the war might be brought to an end, though 
alone he dared not treat with the rebels, but in case I 
felt inclined to join him, we could bring it to a favour- 
able conclusion. I replied that our habits of treating 
were very unlike their own, as we allowed no delays 
to interpose, but that I would unite with him for one 
interview, and if that interview was favourable we might 
meet the chiefs at once and settle it, or put an end to 
all further treating. Pangeran Subtu was delighted 
with the proposition, urged its great advantages, and 
the meeting, by my desire, was fixed for that very 
night, the place Pangeran Illudin's fort at Sekundis. 
The evening arrived, and at dark we were at the 
appointed place, and a message was dispatched for 
Sherif Moksain. In the meantime, however, came a 
man from Pangeran Subtu to beg us to hold no inter- 
course, that the rebels were false, meant to deceive us, 
and if they did come we had better make them prisoners. 
Sherif Jaffer, after arguing the point some time, rose 
to depart, remarking that with such proceedings he 
would not consent to treat. I urged him to stay, but 
finding him bent on going I ordered my gig (which had 
some time before been brought overland) to be put 
into the water, my intention being to proceed to the 
enemy's kampong and hear what they had to say. I 
added that it was folly to leave undone what we had 
agreed to do in the morning because Pangeran Subtu 
changed his mind; that I had come to treat, and treat 
I would. I would not go away now without giving the 
enemy a fair hearing. For the good of all parties I 
would do it, and if the Sherif liked to join me, as we 
proposed before, and wait for Sherif Moksain, good; 



The White Rajah 85 

if not, I would go in the boat to the kampong. My 
Europeans, on being ordered, jumped up, ran out, and 
brought the boat to the water's edge, and in a few 
minutes oars, rudder and rowlocks were in her. My 
companions, seeing this, came to terms, and we waited 
for Sherif Moksain, during whichj however, I over- 
heard a whispering conversation from Subtu's 
messenger, proposing to seize him, and my temper was 
ruffled to such a degree that I drew out a pistol, and 
told him I would shoot him dead if he dared to seize, 
or talk of seizing, any man who trusted himself from 
the enemy to meet me. The scoundrel slunk off, and 
we were no more troubled with him. This past, Sherif 
Moksain arrived, and was introduced into our fortress 
alone — alone and unarmed in an enemy's stockade, 
manned with two hundred men. His bearing was firm ; 
he advanced with ease and took his seat, and during the 
interview the only sign of uneasiness was the quick 
glance of his eye from side to side. The object he 
aimed at was to gain my guarantee that the lives of all 
the rebels should be spared, but this I had not in my 
power to grant. He returned to his kampong, and 
came again towards morning, when it was agreed that 
Sherif Jaffer and myself should meet the Patingis and 
the Tumangong, and arrange terms with them. By 
the time our conference was over the day broke, and 
we descended to our boats to have a little rest. 

"On the 20th December we met the chiefs on the 
river, and they expressed themselves ready to yield, 
without conditions, to the Rajah, if I would promise 
that they should not be put to death. My reply was 
that I could give no such promisCj but if they sur- 
rendered it must be for life or death, according to the 
Rajah's pleasure, and all I could do was to use my 
influence to save their lives. To this they assented 
after a while, but then there arose the more difficult 



86 The Boy's Book of Pioneers 

question, how they were to be protected until the 
Rajah's orders arrived. They dreaded both Chinese 
and Malays, especially the former, who had just cause 
for angry feelings, and who, it was feared, would make 
an attack on them directly their surrender had taken 
from them their means of defence. The Malays would 
not assail them in a body, but would individually 
plunder them and give occasions for disputes and blood- 
shed. Their apprehensions were almost sufficient to 
break off the hitherto favourable negotiations, had I not 
proposed to them myself to undertake their defence and 
to become responsible for their safety until the orders of 
their sovereign arrived. On my pledging myself to this 
they yielded up their strong fort of Balidah, the key of 
their position. I immediately made it known to our 
own party that no boats were to ascend or descend the 
river, and that any person attacking or pillaging the 
rebels were my enemies, and that I should fire upon 
them without hesitation. 

"Both Chinese and Malays agreed to the propriety 
of the measure, and gave me the strongest assurances 
of restraining their prospective followers; the former 
with good faith, the latter with the intention of involv- 
ing matters, if possible, to the destruction of the rebels. 
By the evening we were in possession of Balidah, and 
certainly found it a formidable fortress, situated on a 
steep mound, with dense defences of wood, triple deep, 
and surrounded by two enclosures, thickly studded on 
the outside with ranjaus. The effect of our fire had 
shaken it completely, now much to our discomfort, for 
the walls were tottering and the roof as leaky as a sieve. 
On the 20th December, then, the war closed. The very 
next day, contrary to stipulation, the Malay pangerans 
tried to ascend the river, and when stopped began to 
expostulate. After preventing many, the attempt was 
made by Subtu and Pangeran Hassim in three large 



The White Rajah 87 

boats, boldly pulling towards us. Three hails did not 
check them, and they came on, in spite of a blank 
cartridge and a wide ball to turn them back. But I was 
resolved, and when a dozen musket balls whistled over 
and fell close around them they took to an ignominious 
flight. I subsequently upbraided them for this breach 
of promise, and Makota loudly declared they had been 
greatly to blame, but I discovered that he himself had 
set them on." 

Having brought the rebellion to naught, Brooke had 
another battle to fight — a battle for the lives of the 
rebels. Hassim was for making them pay the penalty, 
but Brooke insisted that they should be pardoned, and 
when it seemed that Hassim was going to be definitely 
obstinate, the white man rose from the meeting, said 
good-bye, and vowed he would leave the country I 

Brooke won once more. The rebels were pardoned, 
and the effects of the clemency of the white man were 
felt for many years to come. 

The prestige of Brooke was now very great in 
Sarawak. Muda Hassim was overjoyed at the ending of 
his troubles. He seems to have repented of the offer he 
had made to Brooke of the country and its government, 
although he reiterated it after the war was over, and 
indeed got the Sultan to sign a document, which proved 
to be nothing more than a permit to carry on trade I 

So far, so good. Brooke sailed away from Sarawak, 
to fetch over a cargo of goods which he would exchange 
for a cargo of antimony ; and the objective that he had 
before him is shown in a letter which he wrote home to 
his mother : 

"I really have excellent hopes that this effort of mine 
will succeed; and while it ameliorates the condition of 
the unhappy natives and tends to the promotion of the 
highest philanthropy, it will secure to me some better 
means of carrying through these grand objects, for they 



88 The Boy's Book of Pioneers 

are so, when we reflect that civilisation, commerce and 
religion may, through them, be spread over so vast an 
island as Borneo. They are so grand that self is quite 
lost when I consider them; and even the failure would 
be so much better than the non-attempt, that I could 
willingly sacrifice myself as nearly as the barest prudence 
will permit." 

He had high hopes, but they were not immediately 
fulfilled, for when he returned to Sarawak he found that 
Hassim had not kept his bargain. A house that was to 
have been built was not erected, nor was the cargo of 
antimony at hand. This was disappointing; but Brooke 
still hoped for the best, handed over his cargo of goods 
from Singapore, and waited for Muda Hassim to keep 
his word. 

He waited a long time, and nothing was forth- 
coming. Meanwhile, Pangeran Makota, who had all 
along resented the coming of the white man, and had 
not forgotten how he had treated him during the civil 
war, laid a deep plot to drive Brooke away, if he was 
not killed in the driving ! 

Muda Hassim was prevailed upon by Makota to 
bring a large number of Sea Dyaks and Malays to 
tackle a marauding tribe. Makota hoped that the deeds 
of the three thousand warriors — they were deep-dyed 
scoundrels, caring not who they attacked when they 
were at war, whether it was the real enemy or only some 
peaceful folk who had the misfortune to get in their 
way — would be laid to the account of Brooke by the 
natives. Brooke, however, got wind of the plot, though 
not before the war party had set out. He promptly went 
to his yacht, prepared for action, and told Muda Hassim 
that he was going away. 

The Rajah climbed down again, and the warriors 
were fetched back — angry as wild beasts. It was a 
critical time for Brooke and the men with him ; but for 



The White Rajah 89 

the fact that his two ships were so well armed and a 
good look out kept, the robbers would have attacked 
them. As it was, Makota had all his plans upset, for 
instead of rousing the people against the white man, he 
did the very opposite 1 The news spread like wild- 
fire through the country that the Englishman had simply 
said "No," and, behold I the marauding band of ruthless 
warriors had been recalled I From that time Brooke's 
prestige went up by leaps and bounds. 

But Makota had not given up all hope. If he could 
not drive him away, there were other means of coping 
with the stranger. He tried poison, and failed again, 
this time to his undoing. Brooke had had enough of 
Makota and his wiles. He took up a strong attitude, 
before which Muda Hassim could do nothing but agree. 
Makota was deposed from his high office, and in his 
place Brooke became chief adviser. 

By this time Muda Hassim had realised that the task 
of governing Sarawak was beyond him, and that the 
one man for the job was the stranger. He remembered 
his previous promise, and he resigned in favour of 
Brooke 1 This meant that, providing the Sultan agreed, 
the white man was to be Governor of the native State of 
Sarawak — his pioneer work had really commenced in 
earnest. 

It is almost staggering this romance of a white man 
coming to rule over an all but savage State; and the 
way in which he maintained his government and effected 
stupendous reforms is still more staggering. 

He got to work at once. He introduced some decent 
system of justice, replaced in their old positions deposed 
rebel chiefs, and so made a favourable impression. He 
also instituted a sane governmental system which, while 
firm, was yet not harsh; and everything was propitious 
for prosperity, except that the weak Muda Hassim was 
an encumbrance, chiefly because his immediate followers 



go The Boy's Book of Pioneers 

were not particularly amenable to the new regime, and 
regretted the loss of opportunities to exact tribute from 
the people. 

Brooke set about that little matter in a charming way. 
He went over to Brunei to see the Sultan and to get his 
ratification of the transfer of the government; and when 
he returned with the proclamation in his pocket he also 
brought a letter from the Sultan inviting Hassim to go 
to Brunei and take up the Premiership of the kingdom. 
It was some time, however, before Hassim accepted 
the honour; but, secure in his post, Brooke was able 
to turn his attention to the realisation of his ideals, 
which he summed up in the words : " If by dedicating 
myself to the task I am able to introduce better customs 
and settled laws, and to raise the feeling of the people, 
so that their rights can never in future be wantonly 
infringed, I shall indeed be content and happy." 

The first two years of his rule were filled with hard 
work diagnosing the case he was interested in and 
putting in train the "cure" which he felt would result 
in success. It was not easy going : he had enemies as 
well as friends. The banished Pangeran Makota headed 
a Bornean opposition to the white man's government; 
Dyak and Malay pirates, the natives of the district of 
Sadong, and the Dutch, through the Sultan of Samas, 
a neighbouring State, were also the enemies of the new 
regime. The pirates especially were a fruitful source of 
annoyance and loss, for they literally blockaded Sarawak 
during certain portions of the year ; and yet, despite all 
these difficulties, Brooke held on, governing, teaching, 
and by the power of his personality strengthening his 
hold upon the people who had willingly placed him at 
their head. 

While he was thus working in Borneo, he was keep- 
ing an agent in London posted with all available infor- 
mation which might rouse public interest in Bornean 



The White Rajah 91 

affairs, and, although the agent did not do his best by- 
Brooke, yet, when the white Rajah went to Singapore 
in 1843, he learned that the British Government was at 
last waking up, and had commissioned Sir Edward 
Belcher to visit Sarawak to report upon conditions and 
possibilities. 

This was encouraging : it showed Brooke that he had 
at least not wasted his time. 

While at Singapore he met Captain the Hon. Henry 
Keppel, commander of H.M.S. Dido, who, entering into 
the spirit of Brooke, went with him to Sarawak, and, 
while there, took in hand an expedition against the cor- 
sairs, who were ravaging the coast and making trade 
almost impossible. The way in which the pirates at 
Seribas were dealt with — the Dido's seamen and marines 
leading in gallant style attacks on forts and carrying 
everything before them — added greatly to the prestige 
of the white generals, and Brooke in particular, and it 
utterly cowed the pirates themselves, while the natives, 
who had gone in fear and trembling of them, marvelled 
that such dreaded foes should be so completely defeated. 

In due course Belcher arrived, in H.M.S. Samarang, 
to make his investigations. His ship was wrecked in 
the river, and the delay put off for a time the proposed 
visit to Brunei to interview the Sultan, whom Brooke 
was going to petition for a grant of government in per- 
petuity, that being the only way in which he could hope 
to give to his rule those elements of permanence that were 
so desirable. He did not want his work to be a mere 
flash in the pan — a light which, flaring brightly, could 
be extinguished at the caprice of a half-savage Sultan. 

When the visit was paid to the Sultan this grant was 
made, and with a clear run before him, Brooke set to 
work anew. In 1844 Keppel returned in the Dido, after 
a voyage to China, and dealt with the pirates at Saka- 
rang as he had with those at Seribas. A little later the 



92 The Boy's Book of Pioneers 

pirates, under Sherif Jaffer, who had resolved to attack 
Sarawak, were defeated. Then Muda Hassim went back 
to Brunei to take up his position of Prime Minister, and 
soon afterwards Labuan was ceded to Britain for a 
settlement and naval post. 

It will have been seen how beneficial to Sarawak and 
to its white ruler and his plans the British Navy had 
been, for, had it not been for the exploits of the Dido 
the rapid reforms which took place in Sarawak would 
not have been possible. Force applied against a people's 
enemies inculcates admiration ; and the demonstration of 
power by the British on behalf of the Borneans, allied 
to the impress of the personality of Brooke himself, 
wrought tremendously in the latter's favour. 

Of course in England there were those who called 
the white Rajah an adventurer, and later on his calling 
in of British naval aid was used against him ; even the 
Government professed not to understand what he had 
in mind. He made that quite clear, emphasising 
everything he had said before : 

"My intention, my wish, is to extirpate piracy by 
attacking and breaking up the pirate towns." It must 
be understood that piracy in the Eastern Archipelago 
was the curse that settled like a blight upon every 
attempt to make trade profitable. ... "I wish to correct 
the native character, to gain and hold an influence in 
Borneo proper, to introduce gradually a better system 
of government, to open the interior, to encourage the 
poorer natives, to remove the clogs on trade, to develop 
new sources of commerce. I intend to influence and 
amend the entire Archipelago, if the Government will 
afford me means and power. I wish to prevent any 
foreign nation coming on this field.'' 

One would have imagined that such a policy would 
have squashed all objection and have resulted in the 
British Government taking the keenest interest in 



The White Rajah 93 

its affairs, but it was many years before Britain 
bethought herself of acknowledging the independence 
of Borneo, thus signifying her approval of the 
white Rajah's rule. True, in 1845, Brooke was 
made Her Majesty's confidential agent for Borneo, 
and when Admiral Sir Thomas Cochrane arrived 
in Singapore, Brooke appealed to him to act strongly 
against the pirates of the north-west coast; and 
Marudu, a hotbed of Arab robbers, was assaulted and 
burnt. Matters were improved by the unexpected 
strength of Muda Hassim's government at Brunei. The 
country seemed to be settled down, and Brooke was 
able to persevere with the spadework of his rule. 

Yet, beneath the surface, there were certain elements 
that made for disturbance I the Dyaks, for instance, were 
not particularly keen on the white men. An instance of 
the way in which Brooke kept his position may be 
given. One day, in 1845, while he was at dinner with 
the few Englishmen who were his companions in what 
was virtually exile, one of the most dreaded of Dyak 
pirate chiefs stumped into the room, and behind him 
came, fully armed to the teeth, a number of his 
followers. There was no mistaking their intention : it 
was clear that they meant to murder the Englishmen. 
A critical situation, but Brooke met it with his 
accustomed fearlessness. He affected not to notice that 
they bore arms, handed them cigars, and sent an 
attendant for wine for them, incidentally saying in 
English, "Let the Malays know who are here." 

Fortunately, the native attendant understood, and, 
while Brooke was entertaining the pirates, sent the news 
hurriedly to the Malay chiefs of what was afoot. It 
was all a matter of time, for if Brooke was not able to 
keep the Dyaks in conversation and off their guard all 
would have been lost : the bodies of three or four Eng- 
lishmen would have been all that the Malays would 



94 The Boy's Book of Pioneers 

have found when they arrived. But presently, just at 
the very moment when Brooke saw that the Dyaks were 
about to strike, a crowd of armed Malays appeared on 
the scene, pushed into the house, surrounded the Dyaks, 
and, but for the intervention of Brooke, would have 
killed them all on the spot. 

Those Dyaks went away most shamefacedly, and the 
chief, who had vowed to have Brooke's head and hang 
it on a tree, lived to become a friend of the white 
Rajah's. 

Events moved rapidly in Borneo. 

A conspiracy against Muda Hassim resulted in his 
death, and Pangeran Budrudi, who was very friendly 
to Brooke, was also killed by plotters ; and affairs in the 
Sultan's dominions were chaotic. Brooke and Sir 
Thomas Cochrane went to Brunei to investigate. The 
Sultan, who was behind the conspiracy, fled, and a 
provisional government was set up in the city capital, 
which, because some resistance to the British force had 
been made, was occupied, and this fact enhanced the 
native regard for Brooke, because the Sultan's govern- 
ment had been very oppressive. 

Vigorous action generally cleared away the pirates 
from the coast to the north-west, a treaty of commerce 
was negotiated between Brooke, on behalf of Great 
Britain, and the Borneo Government, and Sarawak itself 
was tranquil. This was the position when the Rajah 
returned to England in 1847, where he was well received, 
and when he went back to the East the following year 
he was appointed Governor of the Colony of Labuan : 
on arrival at Singapore being knighted. 

Sarawak was highly delighted at his return. He 
paid official visits to various places in the neighbour- 
hood, and, hearing that the Dyak pirates of Seribas 
had been at v/ork again, a formidable expedition went 
against them, which resulted in a crushing blow to the 



The White Rajah 95 

piratical natives, and incidentally was the cause of 
Brooke resigning from the British Consular Service. 

A fleet of native prahus, and the steamer Nemesis, 
with boats from two other ships, carrying in all nearly 
four thousand men, went up the coast to Seribas River, 
at the mouth of which one squadron kept guard while 
another took up a position in the mouth of the River 
Kaluka, waiting for the pirates; they came, saw the 
large force waiting for them at Kaluka, and swept off 
towards Seribas, where, of course, they were met by 
the other squadron and thoroughly routed, those which 
succeeded in forcing a way through the blockade being 
very few. 

The clean sweep which Brooke and his force had 
made of the Dyak pirates was hailed with unbounded 
delight by the natives along the coast, but in England 
another complexion was put upon the matter, where 
Wise, the agent who had been discharged by Brooke, 
intrigued amongst members of Parliament. Questions 
were asked in the House, which resulted in the appoint- 
ment of a Commission to inquire into the conduct of the 
Rajah, who, going to England in 185 1 to recuperate 
his health, returned to Sarawak with the knowledge' that 
the folk at home were suspicious of his handling of 
affairs. However, in Sarawak he still exercised his wise 
administration, though he must have been suffering 
greatly from the aspersions cast upon him, and, more- 
over, the fact that the British Government had instituted 
an inquiry into his conduct induced his enemies in 
Borneo to foster discontent. He overcame these, how- 
ever, and gathered in the chiefs of the Dyak tribes of 
Sarawak, Samarahan and Sadong. 

One of these, Datu Patingi, proved dissatisfied with 
the arrangement by which Brooke paid him fifty per 
cent, beyond the dues legally his, and introduced abuses, 
and even went to the extent of plotting for driving the 



96 The Boy's Book of Pioneers 

English from Sarawak. The way in which Brooke 
handled the matter was characteristic : he did not take 
martial action against the Datu, but simply called a 
council of the head men of the country, among them 
Patingi, whom he then accused of conspiracy. There 
was no gainsaying the truth of this, and the discomfited 
Dyak was relieved of all his weapons, deposed, but 
otherwise not punished. 

Then, with the Commission still hanging over his 
head for having dared to punish the pirates of Seribas, 
Brooke went forth again to put down piracy on the part 
of a rascal named Rentab. It was a formidable expedi- 
tion of eight thousand men which went to attack the 
fortified village of Rentab at Sungei Lang, and it 
resulted in a great victory. 

And then, when this work was accomplished, Brooke 
and some of his English adherents went to Singapore to 
answer the charges levelled against the Rajah, for the 
Commission was sitting there. There is little need to 
enlarge upon the inquiry, which was to prove or dis- 
prove whether Brooke's position as ruler in Sarawak was 
compatible with his duties as Commissioner and Consul- 
General, whether he was within his rights to hold sway 
over a territory in which, so it was asserted, he was a 
trader ; also to settle some charges made against him by 
two people who were disaffected; and, most serious of 
all, "what were the relations of Sir James Brooke with 
and towards the native tribes on the north-west coast of 
Borneo, with a view to ascertain whether it was necessary 
that he should be entrusted with a discretion to 
determine which of these tribes were piratical, or, taking 
into account the recent operations on the coast, to call 
for the aid of Her Majesty's forces for the punishment of 
such tribes." 

And the finding? It was proved that the Rajah 
was not a trader; that the personal charges were un- 



The White Rajah 97 

founded, that his two positions were incompatible, 
although they had had beneficial results, which should 
have been sufficient to clear him of any blame, because 
he had been appointed to his official positions by a 
Government which knew what his position was in 
Sarawak, and that he had done no wrong in punishing 
the pirates, for the Commission gave its opinion that 
the tribes attacked were pirates. 

Yet, despite the finding of the Commission, the 
British Government were very lukewarm in their 
approval, and even slighted the Rajah's government. 

All this meant that Brooke was to be left entirely to 
his own resources to develop the country which owned 
allegiance to him and to further his beneficent system 
of government. He was not disheartened, but rather 
went forward with energy unsurpassed, and was 
gratified when a company was formed in London to 
develop the resources of Sarawak. 

But greater trouble than any he had experienced was 
awaiting for him. The Chinese section of the popula- 
tion — a very strong one, by the way — rose in revolt, 
roused by the Chinese Gold Working Company of the 
interior — a secret society really, which resolved to sweep 
the white men out of Borneo and assume the reins of 
government in Sarawak. 

The insurrection came with startling suddenness. 
The stockades round Kuching, the capital, were but 
weakly manned, when, at midnight, on February i8, 
1857, ^ large force of Chinese entered Kuching unseen, 
split up into parties, and rushed various parts of the 
city. At Government House, where only Brooke and 
his native servant then were, they made simultaneous 
attacks rear and front, omitting, fortunately for Brooke, 
to put a watch at the ends. At first the Rajah, who 
awakened to the sounds of firing and yelling, was in- 
clined to hold out, but, realising that he could not do 

H 



98 The Boy's Book of Pioneers 

so unaided, managed to escape through a window at 
one unwatched end, with sword drawn and revolver 
ready to greet the foes he quite expected would be there. 
As it was, he slipped off unseen, and reached the river, 
dived in, and swam across, still unnoticed. 

Meanwhile, the ruffians had attacked other English- 
men, killing and wounding whoever they laid hands on 
— men and women and children alike. One poor little 
mite was beheaded, and its head used as a football in 
the presence of its mother, who only escaped death by 
hiding in a large jar filled with water, and then having 
to flee in terror when the mad Chinese set fire to the 
house. 

The ill-manned stockades put up a gallant fight : the 
treasurer, Mr. Crymble, and four Malays made a 
strenuous stand against a horde of savages, who ad- 
vanced, torches in hand, and when the pressure became 
too great the Englishman released a Malay madman and 
another prisoner who were confined in the gaol. They 
were of little use; the latter fled, the former killed 
himself. 

Crymble saw that it was hopeless to hang on, for 
one of his Malays was dead and another wounded. He 
made a gallant attempt to rescue the wounded man, 
who, however, was speared by the Chinese who had 
forced a way in. Crymble escaped by the very skin 
of his teeth. . . . 

The attack on the other stockade was equally 
vicious and the stand equally gallant. There were but 
four Malays, who potted at the assaulting party, and 
then, swinging open the gate, charged the Chinese and 
literally hacked a way through them, all escaping ! 

While all these events were taking place and the 
whole of the inhabitants of Kuching were trembling 
with fear as the flames of burning buildings mounted 
higher and higher and spread apace, Brooke had 



The White Rajah 99 

managed to reach the house of one of his native officials, 
where his white officers also gathered. His quick brain 
soon saw that in the state of terror in which the people 
were it was impossible to attack the Chinese success- 
fully, and he therefore had all the women and children 
removed to a place of safety beyond the river, and 
the following morning his faithful subject3 came 
clambering round him, ready to take up arms against 
the rebels. 

In Kuching the Chinese were running amok, 
although eventually they quietened down and called a 
council of war, which hauled before it Europeans who 
were not connected with Brooke's government. They 
sought to convince the natives that Brooke was dead by 
having some fiend carry round on a pole the head of 
one of the white men who had been killed. Then they 
put into words the scheme they had formed for the 
assumption of the government of Sarawak. Almost at 
the point of the sword the Europeans and the native 
chiefs were compelled to swear allegiance, but when, 
soon after, the Chinese left Kuching for the interior the 
white men and Malays retracted. 

Brooke was bent on gathering his folfces well away 
from the city, but at the entreaty of the Malays, having 
got the women and children away, he returned to 
Kuching, and found the city a burnt ruin. The Chinese 
were there again, for they had returned as soon as they 
heard that the Malays were intent upon resisting. 

So large a force of Chinese was in occupation that 
Brooke saw that it was impossible to succeed in an 
attack, and so retired, determined to seek a rallying 
place for his faithful followers. He went down the 
River Samarahan, and to his great joy met the Borneo 
Company's steamer. Instantly preparations were made 
to march on the rebels. Natives, true to their promise, 
were gathering in large numbers at the mouth of the 



100 The Boy's Book of Pioneers 

river, and in their war prahus, convoyed by the 
steamer, they swept up the river again for Kuching, 
where the startled Chinese let fly at them with every 
musket and piece they had, and then fled. 

Then followed a pursuit by the Malays and Dyaks, 
who hung on unrelentingly, killing every foe they met, 
and regaining much of the booty which had been seized. 

Kuching was cleared of the rebels. There is no 
need to follow the course of the final operations against 
them; they were utterly defeated in the end, and the 
white Rajah was once more in command of his people, 
whom he ruled through calm and trouble for many more 
years, exercising his wise administration of justice, 
developing its resources as far as was possible, and 
living down the opposition at home, until at last the 
British Government acknowledged the independence of 
Sarawak, and appointed a Consul. 

That is a fitting point at which to finish the story 
of the white man who became a Rajah over an Eastern 
people; it was the climax of all his endeavours, the 
reward of his disinterested devotion. The results of all 
his labours were manifold : he had gone, an unknown 
Englishman, into Sarawak, had found it and its 
neighbouring States savage and unsettled, overriden by 
pirates, and he had by tact, and practically unaided, 
brought into existence wise government, had opened up 
possibilities of trade never dreamt of, had won the 
devotion of a people, and almost freed the country from 
the pirates, who had been grim barriers to trade along 
the coast. He had pioneered, in very truth, and when 
he died in England, in 1868, he had the gratification 
of knowing that all he had done had been wise and 
justified by results. What he bequeathed to his 
successor, his nephew. Sir Charles Brooke, was a 
prosperous country, justly ruled, where natives and 
Europeans were fellow-citizens living at peace. 



THE MISSIONARY AS A PIONEER 

The Noble Story of David Livingstone 

THE moment one speaks about missionaries as 
pioneers, the mind flies back to the memory of 
David Livingstone, around whose name the glamour of 
romance hangs and the incense of self-sacrificing devo- 
tion lingers : while Africa remains in the memory of 
man, so will Livingstone's achievements be told and 
retold. 

When the young missionary began his African 
career. Central Africa, from Kuruman to the Equator, 
was a terra incognita. At Kuruman the London 
Missionary Society had its farthest station, to which they 
sent (July 31, 1841) their new man, in company with 
Robert Moffat. But Livingstone did not stay long at 
the station : he saw greater possibilities farther north, 
and wrote home and told his directors so, pointing out 
to them that there were more people in the north to 
whom the gospel could be preached. And, by the end 
of that first year, Livingstone had trekked seven 
hundred miles to the north, through Griqualand and 
Bechuanaland ; at the latter place he made friends with 
the natives, and decided to found a new station. When, 
in the February of 1842, he trekked back to Bechuana- 
land, with a couple of native Christians from Kuruman, 
he obtained an influence over various chiefs on the way : 
Bubi, chief of the Bakwains, allowed him to teach the 
children of his tribe; Sekomi, a chief in the Kalahari 
Desert, received him kindly. This strange white man, 
with wonderful powers of magic (so they regarded his 



102 The Boy's Book of Pioneers 

medical skill) and the ability to speak their language 
(in so short a time had the assiduous missionary- 
acquired the tongue), was looked upon as a worker of 
great good, as the friend of the natives, as the man who 
feared nothing, and who came not to conquer but to 
teach. 

These first two trips northwards, and a third in 
February, 1843, were in the nature of scouting for the 
best position for the new mission, which he would erect 
when his directors sanctioned his proposal. Permission 
came in due course, and in August, 1843, he was at 
Bakhatla, where, arranging matters with the chief, he 
established his station at a place called Mabotsa. He 
had with him another missionary and some native 
Christians, believing that native agency would be a 
great factor in Christianising the country. 

Wonderful things happened at Mabotsa, and we 
must mention some, although we shall have to hurry on. 
There Livingstone became engaged to the daughter of 
Robert Moffat, and found her the helpmeet he needed. 
There, also, he wrought good amongst the natives, who 
learned to bless his name; and there, too, he had a 
narrow escape from a lion, being saved only by the 
devotion of his native deacon, Mebalwe. Livingstone 
came out of that affair with a broken shoulder, which 
never really righted itself; but he lived, and the world 
was not robbed of the great man until his work was 
finished, or nearly so. 

From Mabotsa to Chonuana, the village of Sechele, 
a chief of the Bakwains, whom Livingstone had 
befriended on an earlier journey. At Chonuana he 
built another station, and from it made attempts to 
establish native agents at various outlying places. His 
efforts were unsuccessful, owing to unrest in the country, 
and eventually Livingstone had to leave his second 
station owing to scarcity of water. He founded another 



The Missionary as a Pioneer 103 

mission house on the banks of the River Kolobeng, in 
1847, and then conceived the idea of pushing still farther 
into the heart of Africa — both to found a mission and 
to discover a^ lake of which the natives were ever 
speaking, Lake 'Ngami. 

It was in 1849 that Livingstone really began the 
travels which made him famous. His great expedition 
was accompanied by two big game hunters, Mr. Oswell 
and Mr. Murray, and the route followed was along the 
north-east border of the Kalahari Desert. As he went, 
the pioneer-missionary carried out his work of teaching 
and healing the natives, took notes of everything of 
topographical and geographical value, and won over 
hostile natives to friendliness. The chief Sekomi, who 
feared that the coming of the white men would ad- 
versely affect his trade in ivory (he held a monopoly in 
it) endeavoured to upset the expedition by intriguing 
with the natives; he sent with Livingstone a couple of 
men, professedly guides, whose duties were to sow 
suspicions amongst the tribes that the explorers were 
seeking for plunder. These scoundrels made plenty of 
trouble, but their work soon came to an end, for one 
of them died of fever, and the natives, who had been 
alarmed by the innuendoes, regarded it as a judgment. 

The expedition thereafter suffered no obstruction 
from them, and in due course the travellers, passing up 
the River Zouga, or Botletle, arrived at the lake of 
which the natives had spoken. It was a fine achieve- 
ment, this discovery of the north end of the Lake 
'Ngami, but Livingstone was by no means content. 
From natives he had gleaned information of a river 
which they called the Tamunak'le, which had its source 
in a country full of lakes. So, northwards the mission- 
ary decided to go, and would have done so had not 
Lechulatebe, chief of the natives around the lake, re- 
fused to grant him guides, fearing lest he would put his 



104 The Boy's Book of Pioneers 

foe Sebituane, a chief holding sway some two hundred 
miles in the north, in the way of obtaining firearms. 

Livingstone, therefore, resolved to cross the River 
Zouga and explore the country on its farther side ; but 
here again Lechulatebe obstructed him by prohibiting 
him the use of boats ; the missionary solved that problem 
by building rafts, toiling day after day in the river up 
to his knees in water infested by alligators. 

Still, all his labour was in vain, for, by the time he 
was ready to start the rainy season had set in, and the 
time was unpropitious for extended exploration, and 
the expedition returned to Kolobeng, via the Zouga. 

The efforts of the pioneer had resulted in the open- 
ing up of a vast tract of country never touched by 
travellers before; many had tried, and all had failed, 
and the 'Ngami had been visited, while a new trade 
route for ivory was inaugurated. Geographically, com- 
mercially, and from a missionary point of view, that 
first journey of Livingstone was a great success. The 
next expedition, entered upon in 1850, got no farther 
than 'Ngami, having to return owing to the illness, with 
fever, of one of Livingstone's two children, who, with 
their mother, had accompanied their father. 

Yet again did Livingstone go north, taking his 
family with him. He reached Lake 'Ngami, overcame 
the objections of the obstructionist chief, and trekked on 
until he arrived in the land of Sebituane, who was a 
mighty chief, and who received the explorer (near the 
Chobe River) in a friendly manner, and allowed Living- 
stone to preach the Gospel to the people, for, although 
Livingstone was now keen on his explorations, he did 
not forget the main purpose of everything : he was a 
preacher of the Gospel first, an explorer afterwards. 

Unfortunately, Sebituane, who was, Oswell wrote, 
"Far and away the finest Kaffir I ever saw," died, and 
the explorers lost a friend. The chief's daughter, who 



The Missionary as a Pioneer 105 

succeeded him as head of the Makololo people, gave 
them permission to carry on their explorations, and, 
leaving his family in camp on the south bank of the 
Chobe, Livingstone went with Oswell to the north- 
east. On August 4, after pushing their way through 
shoulder-high grass for many miles, they came to a 
river at a point called Sesheke, which ultimately they 
came to know was the Zambezi. 

The discovery of this great river filled them with 
joy, and Livingstone was for establishing a mission 
station on the spot, but the malarial conditions made 
that impracticable. When Livingstone and Oswell 
arrived back at the Chobe camp they found there two 
English traders who had been bent on finding the 
Zambezi. They had been forestalled, however. 

Livingstone's passion for exploration was now very 
great, and Oswell, who had been a good friend, proved 
himself to be even more friendly. He offered to take 
the Livingstone family down to Cape Town, whence 
Mrs. Livingstone and the children could depart for 
England, leaving the missionary to further his dis- 
coveries. This course was adopted, and, when his 
family had left for the Old Country, Livingstone studied 
at the Cape Town Observatory to fit him for survey- 
ing scientifically. Then, with what money he could 
scrape together (it was not much, in all conscience, for 
his stipend was ;^ioo a year, and the proceeds from his 
sale of ivory given him by various chiefs was not 
princely), in due course he ventured forth. He reached 
Kolobeng, to find it gutted by unfriendly settlers. 
This unfortunate happening caused delay, but in June, 
1853, Livingstone struck out for the north, and, cross- 
ing the Chobe in a pontoon which had been presented 
to him by friends, appeared suddenly at Linyanti, the 
capital of the Makololo, to the astonishment of the 
people, who had not imagined that anyone could cross 



io6 The Boy's Book of Pioneers 

the river without being seen. The journey north had 
been a terrible one; the oxen had been attacked by- 
tsetse fly, the native attendants were smitten by fever, 
the country was flooded, and in parts little more than a 
swamp, through which travelling was a nightmare. 

At Linyanti Livingstone received a fine welcome, 
Sekeletu (a son of Sebituane, made chief by his sister) 
being exceedingly friendly, although he was not in 
favour of the missionary preaching the new Gospel, lest 
it should convert him and make him content with one 
wife ! 

Sekeletu, however, volunteered to accompany the 
missionary-explorer to the Zambezi, and, having taught 
the chief how to ride on the back of oxen, Livingstone, 
in company with him and a crowd of his natives, 
journeyed up the great river, and when he arrived at 
the junction of the Kabompo and Liba, resolved to 
strike out in a new direction and seek the sources of 
the River Kawanza. He therefore went on, with an 
escort of twenty-seven Makololo supplied by Sekeletu, 
his ultimate destination being Loanda, the Portuguese 
settlement on the west coast. His equipment for this 
hazardous journey consisted of a rifle and a smooth- 
bore gun, medicines (he would need these later, 
certainly, for he was eaten up with fever to begin with), 
a magic lantern, which might come in handy to frighten 
foes or to amuse enemies, a gipsy tent, a horse rug for 
a bed and a sheepskin mantle for a blanket, biscuits, 
tea, coffee, and some sugar, not forgetting some clean 
shirts and a bag of books and his instruments. Sekeletu 
accompanied him part of the way, and during the 
journey was intrigued against by his half-brother, 
from whose violence on one occasion Livingstone 
protected him at the risk of his own life. 

Up the Kawanza went the explorer, passing the 
Gonye Falls, Lake Dilolo, and so on to the junction 



The Missionary as a Pioneer 107 

of the Kasai (an affluent of the mig'hty Congo), and 
the Kawanza, and, proceeding for many days, came to 
Loanda after a perilous and arduous journey. Always 
there were blackmailing chiefs to be appeased, and 
Livingstone had on more than one occasion to beard the 
lions in their dens, so to speak, in order to keep them 
from attacking the caravan. Fever dogged the mission- 
ary at every step, and often he had to lay up, his 
medicine having been stolen almost at the beginning of 
the journey. Mosquitoes by day, possible attacks by 
natives at night, rivers barring progress at many places, 
and having to be waded through shoulder deep (the 
pontoon had had to be left behind). When the rivers 
were easy, then the forests were thick, and a way had 
to be cut with axes. 

But at last the coast was reached. May, 1854, and 
here, ill with fever and dysentery, almost done, Living- 
stone found a friend in the British Consul, besides 
being welcomed by the Portuguese authorities. At 
Loanda he prepared his papers, and entrusted them to 
a steamer, the Forerunner (which was the first steam- 
ship to visit Angola). He himself refused an offer made 
by the captain of a British cruiser to convey him to 
St. Helena, and, after having recruited his strength, he 
set out on the return journey, feeling, for one thing, 
that he should see his escort safe in their own country. 

Incidentally, it may be mentioned here, that the 
Forerunner was wrecked, and the precious maps and 
papers, which contained so much valuable information 
regarding the discoveries of the explorer-missionary, 
were lost. News of this loss reached Livingstone when 
he had gone but a little distance on the road back, and 
he promptly halted at Pungo Andongo, in Central 
Angola, to re-write and re-draw the papers and maps, 
which he despatched by runner to Loanda, and in due 
course reached England. 



io8 The Boy's Book of Pioneers 

When he left Pungo Andongo, Livingstone went 
with a Portuguese expedition as far as Kasanji, and 
would have accompanied it still farther into the Congo 
region had not his Makololo objected, so, with ever- 
recurring attacks of fever, the explorer journeyed south, 
most of the way on foot, because his ox, which he had 
named Sindbad, had succumbed to the attacks of the 
terrible tsetse flies. 

Arrived at Linyanti in safety, he met there an Arab 
trader from Zanzibar, who gave him much useful and 
correct information regarding the country lying between 
Zanzibar and the Nyasa-Tanganyika district, and thence 
to the Upper Zambezi. Had the missionary wished, the 
trader would have escorted him to Zanzibar, but Living- 
stone had mapped out a new route for himself : he 
purposed going down the Zambezi to the east coast, 
although this route was a very difficult one, and lay 
through the countries of hostile tribes. 

However, difficulties were part and parcel of his 
life in the heart of the great continent, and, having 
obtained from Sekeletu, who was still friendly disposed 
towards him, a fresh guard of over a hundred Makololo, 
he set out from Linyanti on November 3, 1855, ^"^ 
on the 1 8th set eyes (the first European to do so) on the 
mighty falls on the Zambezi, to which he gave the 
name of the Victoria Falls. 

Sekeletu left him after a time, and with his escort 
of a hundred and fourteen natives, Livingstone pushed 
on through country whose natives often surrounded the 
expedition, fearing that this white man — the first they 
had seen, though they had heard much of his fellows — 
was a dealer in slaves, or, at least, one who was prepar- 
ing the way for slave traffickers. For many days danger 
lurked in every footfall, in every stretch of forest, and 
it was only the great tact displayed by Livingstone that 
saved the party from being attacked on more than one 



The Missionary as a Pioneer 109 

occasion. That, in view of the hostility opposed to 
him nearly all the time, Livingstone succeeded in reach- 
ing Tete, a Portuguese settlement on the south bank 
of the Zambezi, is a tribute to the infinite courage and 
patience of the man. From Tete, after resting for 
several weeks (much-needed rest, too, for he was 
prostrate with fever) he proceeded down the river to 
Quilimane, on the east coast, arriving on May 20, 
having travelled right across the continent. 

It was a great achievement, and in the doing of 
it many geographical problems of Darkest Africa had 
been solved, and yet Livingstone regarded it as "only 
the beginning of the enterprise." Imagine, then, his 
chagrin when the letters which he picked up at the coast 
town informed him that the London Missionary Society 
was not in a position to undertake "any untried, remote 
and difficult fields of labour " I The Frolic, a British 
gunboat, which had brought him letters and supplies, 
was placed at his disposal for the voyage to Mauritius, 
as he was to return home, and after an adventurous 
voyage via Aden and the Suez (he was shipwrecked off 
the coast of Tunis), he reached London on December 
12, 1856. 

Of the honours which awaited the explorer in Eng- 
land there is no need to speak. Although he stayed two 
years in the Old Country, he worked hard and en- 
thusiastically in arousing greater interest in his labours, 
which were all designed to one end — namely, the open- 
ing up of the Dark Continent to the Gospel and 
commerce, believing that true commercialism would be 
an effective counterfoil to the slave traffic, of whose 
horrors he had seen more than enough during his 
travels. 

When, in March, 1858, Livingstone left England 
once more bound for the field of his labours, he went as 
British Consul at Quilimane, and he took with him 



no The Boy's Book of Pioneers 

the sections of a small steamer, christened the Ma- 
Robert (in honour of Mrs. Livingstone, that being the 
name given her by the natives in Africa). It was 
specially constructed for river navigation. Mrs. Living- 
stone and their youngest son, Oswell, namesake of the 
hunter who had been companion to the explorer on 
previous expeditions, accompanied him this time, and 
other members of the party were Dr. Kirk (naturalist 
and medical man), and Livingstone's brother Charles. 
They were joined at Cape Town by F. Skead, R.N., 
who was to act as a surveyor, and there were, of course, 
other members, each having an allotted task. 

When the expedition reached Quilimane, it began 
work immediately. It explored the river above Tete, 
discovered a new mouth of the Zambezi, and went up 
the Shir^ River, taking to the land after this and cross- 
ing the country until Lake Nyasa was reached — the first 
scientific-geographical survey party to do so. It was 
anything but a pleasant trip up the Shire : the surface 
was covered so thickly with plants that the Ma-Rohert 
had great difficulty in getting up ; the Portuguese, who 
had known the river a long time, had always been 
unable to make progress along its waters. The natives 
living on its banks, too, were hostile, and Livingstone, 
on one occasion at least, risked his life by going boldly 
out of the boat to where a great crowd, in battle-array, 
waited, daring the white men to approach. 

The southern extremity of Lake Nyasa was explored, 
after which Livingstone, who had his faithful Makololo 
with him, went south to their country, where he found 
Sekeletu ill with leprosy, and not nearly so friendly as 
before. Dr. Kirk did what he could for the chief, how- 
ever, after which the expedition returned to Tete by the 
river, having a very narrow escape from death by 
drowning when they shot the rapids at Quebra-baco. 

When they arrived in the delta of the Zambezi they 



The Missionary as a Pioneer m 

were gratified to see the Ma-Robert founder, for the 
little steamer had not been the success they had ex- 
pected, and the new boat, the Pioneer, which had come 
out from home, was received joyously. Livingstone, 
too, was gratified to be able to welcome Bishop Mac- 
kenzie and a number of other missionaries who had been 
sent out to found a station inland. Livingstone, after 
various minor excursions, took Mackenzie up to the 
Shir^ Highlands, and then he and Kirk went overland, 
carrying a sailing boat with them, to Lake Nyasa, whose 
western shores they partly explored at great peril. The 
natives robbed them of their merchandise, on which 
so much depended, both for paying tribute and for 
purchasing food; at another place the natives were 
utterly opposed to their progress, and threatened them 
daily; while, when sailing on the lake, a gale sprang 
up and well-nigh brought about the deaths of the 
explorers. 

This year, 1862, was a terrible one : Mackenzie died 
of fever on the Shir6, after slave-traders had broken up 
his mission ; Mrs. Livingstone died on the Zambezi ; 
Kirk was so ill with dysentery that, when Livingstone, 
in the midst of his grief over his wife, went again up 
to the Nyasa, the doctor had to be left behind; indeed, 
he and Charles Livingstone went home. Livingstone 
had hoped to find a waterway to the Nyasa by way of 
the River Ruvuma, but failed, the Lady Nyasa, a new 
boat sent over in sections, was not at all serviceable, 
being deep of draught. He went up the Shir^ again, 
bent on reaching Nyasa once more. When he tried to 
shoot the rapids, owing to the carelessness of his men, 
the frail craft was smashed and everything lost. 

Far from being disheartened, the intrepid man 
marched on to the lake and around it until he arrived 
at Kotakota, an Arab trading station, going westwards 
then until he was recalled by the Government, who were 



112 The Boy's Book of Pioneers 

apparently impressed by the protests of the Portuguese, 
they being afraid that the explorations of the English 
missionary might spell disaster to the slave trade in 
which they had great interest. 

Poor Livingstone, again obstructed when he was 
about to follow up his discoveries, had to return ; 
yet he had endeavoured to reach the northern end of 
the lake before doing so. Although he fought his way 
through forests and ran the gauntlet of hostile tribes, 
and lost himself owing to having no guides, he had to 
turn back, having achieved little, and on November i 
reached the coast in the Pioneer, and thence sailed 
across the Indian Ocean in their twopenny-halfpenny 
steamer Lady Nyasa to Bombay. 

In July, 1864, Livingstone was in London, where he 
did not receive so hearty a welcome as on the previous 
occasion, for diplomatic reasons concerning Portugal. 
For over a year he was in England, preaching the cause 
of Africa, and then, in August, 1865, set out on his 
last great journey. His object was, in his own words, 
"to make another attempt to open Africa to civilising 
influences . . . and endeavour to commence that system 
on the east coast which has been so eminently successful 
on the west coast — a system combining the repressive 
efforts of Her Majesty's cruisers with lawful trade and 
Christian missions." That was only part of the motive 
behind the expedition ; he hoped to ascend the Ruvuma, 
pass along the northern edge end of Lake Nyasa and 
round the southern end of Lake Tanganyika, with the 
view of ascertaining the watershed of that part of 
Africa. 

From the mouth of the Ruvuma Livingstone, ac- 
companied by thirteen Sepoys, a number of natives, 
six camels, three buffaloes, a calf, some donkeys and 
mules (he had brought certain of these beasts to see if 
they could withstand the attacks of the tsetse flies), set 




How Stanley found David Livingstone in the heart of Africa 



The Missionary as a Pioneer 113 

out overland for Lake Nyasa. Troubles began at 
once : his Sepoys and some of the natives were re- 
bellious, and men and provisions were lost. Forcing a 
way through the jungle and braving all kinds of danger, 
he at last reached Lake Nyasa on the south-west. 

And the world gave him up. Some deserters who 
had gone back to the coast carried news that the ex- 
plorer had been killed by natives, and their story was 
so circumstantial that it was believed in by many 
people. The Royal Geographical Society, however, 
fitted out an expedition to learn the truth, and, though 
it did not succeed in finding him, it brought back 
information that proved the deserters to be liars, and a 
further expedition, headed by Henry Morton Stanley, 
was sent out to find him. 

Meanwhile, Livingstone was doing his duty. He 
had been unable to buy a dhow, of which the slave- 
traders had a monopoly, and so had to walk round Lake 
Nyasa, then pushing on towards Lake Tanganyika. 
He was fever-stricken, wellnigh starved, without 
medicine, for the chest had been stolen, his lungs were 
affected, his legs bad, but still he kept on, reaching 
Tanganyika (which had been discovered by Speke and 
Burton in 1861), and, later. Lake Moero, having by this 
time only three or four attendants left, and few stores. 
He discovered the River Luapula (really the Upper 
Congo), and after various adventures in the country of 
Kazembe, went south to Lake Bangweolo, whence he 
travelled to the west shore of Tanganyika, crossing by 
boat to Ujiji. 

A brief rest, and then out again, this time to 
Nyangwe, on the River Lualaba (actually the Upper 
Congo), and it was only shortage of food and stores 
that made him turn back. He was so ill that he had 
to be carried in a litter to the western shore of Tangan- 
yika, where he embarked for Ujiji, where he hoped to 
I 



114 The Boy's Book of Pioneers 

find supplies. They had, however, been stolen on the 
way, and it was a hungry, impoverished sick man who 
one day saw a caravan approaching his camp at Ujiji; 
and at the head of that caravan floated the Stars and 
Stripes of the United States ! A white man came out 
from among the herd of natives, and, walking to where 
the missionary stood, raised a weather-worn helmet, 
and said, as though they were meeting in some public 
place in London : 

"Doctor Livingstone, I presume?" 

"Yes," was Livingstone's reply, given in as matter- 
of-fact a way as the stranger greeted him. 

"Thank God, doctor, I have been permitted to see 
you," said the new-^comer. 

In such a manner did Stanley find David Living- 
stone, after searching Central Africa for him. In the 
typical Anglo-Saxon manner did these two men, the 
sought and the seeker, meet hundreds of miles from 
civilisation. 

They had much to tell : Livingstone of the vast 
stretches of country which he had explored, the mighty 
rivers, the enormous lakes^^which he had placed upon 
the map of Africa, all simply and enthusiastically told, 
yet always with the same background to everything — 
the wonderful opportunities of the missionary to supply 
the needs of the natives. 

For his part, Stanley told the story of the world's 
suspense over the uncertainty of the fate of the man of 
whom, for two years, no news had been received. The 
two men stayed some time at Ujiji, and then went 
together to explore the northern half of Tanganyika. 
When they returned, having carried out their task, 
Livingstone, cheered by the company of the first white 
man he had seen for many, many months, set to work 
to compile his notes and maps, which should show to 
the world what he had accomplished. These he 



The Missionary as a Pioneer 115 

designed to send back by Stanley, who sought to dis- 
suade him from remaining in Africa, urging him to 
return home to England, if only for a while. 

"Not yet," Livingstone always replied. "I must 
not return home yet, I must finish my task," 

He had by this time become obsessed with the idea 
of finding the source of the Nile. 

Then came the time when, with a fe'rvent handshake, 
these two men bade each other good-bye — for ever. . . . 
Stanley went back to civilisation; Livingstone out into 
the unknown yet once more. . . . 

He had accompanied Stanley to Unyanyembi to 
obtain stores which had been sent on there from 
Zanzibar, and with these, and with a fuller measure of 
health than he had enjoyed for a long time, he went 
beyond Tanganyika, bound for Lake Bangweolo, his 
intention being to map the upper course of the Lua- 
laba, the Chambezi, and the Luapula. Eighteen months 
he was allowing to complete this work, and then he 
promised himself that he would return home. 

But the work was never completed. The old weari- 
ness, pain and sickness overtook him before he had 
gone far. The weather proved unkind, the days being 
alternately hot and rainy. When he was only a short 
distance from Lake Bangweolo he had to call a halt; 
he could not go any farther. Only one thing was 
possible, or seemed possible, and that was to return to 
Ujiji. Even that, however, was not to be. The time 
came when he had to take to a donkey instead of walk- 
ing. Even riding was impossible for his pain-racked 
body, and his native boys fixed up a native bedstead, 
which they slung on a bamboo pole, and carried him 
through jungle and through marsh, making all hast? to 
reach Ujiji, 

The end was very near now, and yet the brave- 
hearted explorer was not to die before he had experienced 



ii6 The Boy's Book of Pioneers 

more trouble. At Ilala the chief was inclined to be 
hostile, and refused permission for the dying man to 
stay in his district. So it was on again — to find a place 
in which to die I 

The time came w^hen, at a village south of Bang- 
weolo, Livingstone could no longer stand the strain of 
the travelling. 

"Build me a hut to die in," he said to Majwara, a 
favourite Nassick boy, and when the temporary shelter 
was finished the missionary lay on a rough bed and 
waited for the end, watched lovingly by his faithful 
servants, who knew the end was drawing near, and 
dreaded it. 

. . . They found him dead one morning, kneeling 
as if he had died praying ; and a great grief filled the 
hearts of these men of the wild, who had looked upon 
Livingstone as their father, as indeed he was. 

Jacob Wainwright, one of his natives, sent a note 
to a party of Englishmen who, he had heard, were in 
the country; and Cameron, who commanded, was the 
first Englishman to learn of the death of Livingstone. 

Thus died the man who had mapped the vast heart 
of Africa, who had pioneered those wild places of the 
earth, had revealed the horrors of the slave trade, had 
opened up new routes of commerce, and who, even in 
his death, did good, for the imaginations of men were 
fired when they read the story of his discoveries and 
devotion to duty; they followed quickly in his steps, 
and carried farther the work he had begun and been 
compelled to leave unfinished. 



THE MYSTERY RIVER OF AFRICA 

How the Riddle of the Ages — the Source of the Nile — 
was Solved by Britishers 

THE Nile was the sacred river of tiie Egyptians of 
old. They looked upon it — as, indeed, they might 
well do — as the life-giving stream, the river which made 
existence possible in the land of sandy wastes. And, 
from being the sacred river of the past, it was also the 
river of mystery of a later period, for no man knew 
whence the mighty river had its source. Julius Cccsar, 
Nero, Alexander the Great, Napoleon, and many another 
conqueror, both of man and of nature, tried to wrest 
from Africa the secret of the Nile, but failed. Year 
after year hardy explorers opened up wide tracts of 
country, but always the source of the great Nile 
remained a mystery. 

And then, early in the nineteenth century, the news 
came to the outer world of two missionaries, named 
Krapf and Rebmann, who had learned from the natives 
of Equatorial Africa of snow-capped mountains and of 
vast lakes, joined to one another, and making one great 
sheet of water. Putting this by the side of the dis- 
covery of Bruce, the Abyssinian, as he was called, a 
pioneer who, in 1770, visited Abyssinia, and reached the 
"headwaters of the Blue Nile, one of the chief tribu- 
taries of the parent stream," geographers decided that a 
properly equipped expedition might be successful in dis- 
covering the source of the Nile. Such an expedition 
was sent out by the Royal Geographical Society in 
1857-59, under the leadership of Lieutenant Burton and 
Captain Speke. 

117 



ii8 The Boy's Book of Pioneers 

These two explorers had accompanied each other on 
a previous expedition to the Somali country* That was 
a disaster, for the treacherous Somalis had fallen upon 
the expedition at Berbera and killed Lieutenant Stroy- 
nan, a volunteer to the party, and had captured Speke. 
Even while he was lying on the ground, with his hands 
bound, one of the natives attempted to run him through 
with a speaf, but the fearless Speke sprang to his feet, 
and with his bound hands knocked the Somali down, 
and then tore for his life to shore, where Burton and the 
rest had already gone. Fortunately, there was a ship 
there, which had come in the day before, and the party 
was able to escape. 

The Nile Expedition sailed for Zanzibar on Decem- 
ber 6, 1856, and from there struck inland for Ujiji, on 
the shores of Lake Tanganyika, with an escort of 
Belooch soldiers, some armed slaves and their own 
private servants. For a while everything went well, 
except that Burton, who was the leader of the expedi- 
tion, was taken ill, and only with difficulty kept up 
until they reached Kazeh, an Arab trading station half- 
way to Tanganyika. Here Burton was so ill that it was 
impossible for him to proceed any farther, and, leaving 
him well cared for, Speke pushed on, intent on reaching 
Lake Nyanza, supposed to be one of the great lakes that 
the missionaries had spoken of. 

Speke arrived at Tanganyika, the first stage of the 
journey, almost blind with inflammation of the eyes, 
caused by his severe attacks of fever. He was, how- 
ever, cured of his blindness in a remarkable way. A 
swarm of beetles attacked him one day, and one little 
brute entered his ear, eating its way in with fearful pain 
to Speke. It was not an unmixed evil, for, acting as a 
counter-irritant, it drew away the inflammation. 

He kept on and, reaching Ujiji after weeks of 
fearsome travelling, set eyes upon the great Lake 



The Mystery River of Africa 119 

Nyanza. This was in August, 1857, and he believed 
that he had found the source, or "proximate source," as 
he put it, of the Nile. He was told by the natives that 
the lake stretched hundreds of miles northwards and 
that there it had an outlet into a river "frequented by 
white men." He believed that that river must be the 
Nile itself. He christened the lake Victoria Nyanza, and 
endeavoured to obtain boats in which to explore it, but 
was unable to do so. There was, therefore, nothing to 
do but return towards the coast. Picking up Burton 
(now recovered) on the way, the expedition arrived in 
due course at Zanzibar and made their way to London, 
where great interest was aroused in their discoveries, 
and the lake question and the Nile source were topics of 
learned discussions, which resulted in a further expedi- 
tion being sent out to follow up the discoveries of 
Victoria Nyanza. Speke was in command, and with 
him went Captain Grant. 

Arrived at Zanzibar, bearers and pagazis were col- 
lected after a great deal of trouble, and the expedition 
set out, making for Victoria Nyanza via the Uganda. 
It was a vexatious march that lay before the explorers : 
men deserted at every opportunity, those who remained 
were continually quarrelling, mules died, incessant 
rain was experienced, tribes were hostile at many places, 
food and water were scarce, there were jungles to be 
cut through and swollen torrents to be crossed. Arabs 
and natives seemed always at loggerheads, which often 
delayed the pioneers, and through a variety of causes it 
was sometimes necessary for them to retrace their foot- 
steps and lay up. The brightest spot in the journey was 
Karague, where the king, Rumanika by name, proved 
most friendly and helpful. He was highly pleased at the 
visit of the white men, and Speke spent a long time at 
his court, teaching him all kinds of things, and, in 
return, receiving much information regarding the 



120 The Boy's Book of Pioneers 

country and the people through whose territories he 
would have to pass as he went northward. 

Quite a different sort of potentate was found in 
M'tesa, King of Uganda. Speke had had to leave 
Grant behind at Karagu^ through illness, and when he 
arrived at the capital of M'tesa (after being held up a 
long time waiting for the king's permission to pro- 
ceed) he at once came into conflict with African 
dignity; he was kept outside the king's reception room, 
and the attendants would have had him sit on the 
ground. Speke, however, realised that everything de- 
pended upon the attitude he took up, and he refused to 
be treated like an Arab trader. 

He told those officials that he would wait, standing, 
for five minutes — and five minutes only — and that if the 
king had not sent for him then he would go away. 

All Speke's men were quaking with fear; they fore- 
saw the anger of the savage chief (who held life very 
cheaply, and who was, indeed, one of the most power- 
ful of African kings), and M'tesa's courtiers were 
amazed at the foolhardiness of the stranger. 

But no message came from the king, and Speke 
stamped off to his camp in a fine rage. News of this 
reached M'tesa, who sent messengers hurrying after the 
explorer, imploring him to return at once. Speke kept 
up his attitude, and presently Bombay and others of 
his men came along with a rare tale of the king's grief 
at what had happened, and saying that a minor chief's 
gift had been turned out of the court, and that the 
white man could come to the palace immediately and 
bring his chair with him. The full significance of that 
is apparent when it is stated that no one in Uganda 
dared sit on an artificial seat — that to do so was the 
exclusive privilege of the king ! 

Speke was highly pleased at his triumph ; this recog- 
nition of his dignity was a great point gained, and he 



The Mystery River of Africa 121 

was determined that it should be upheld during the 
whole of his sojourn in the country. 

He went back to the king's palace, and was received 
by M'tesa, who sat on a throne of grass covered by a 
red blanket. The Englishman walked in, with his 
guard of honour following, pitched his camp chair, 
opened up his umbrella, and for an hour sat looking at 
M'tesa, neither saying anything, because neither under- 
stood the other, and no one dared speak or lift his eyes 
for fear of being accused of looking at the king's many 
wives ! 

Speke, however, understood the signs that M'tesa 
made, and in answer exhibited his novelties — his hat, 
his umbrella, the clothing of his guards and so forth — 
and then the king sent a messenger, a petty chief, to 
ask if the white man had seen his majesty I 

"Yes, for fully one hour," was Speke's reply. 

And his black majesty, getting up from his primi- 
tive throne, walked away ! 

Wondering what on earth it all meant, Speke waited, 
and was presently enlightened. It seemed that M'tesa 
had vowed he would not touch food until he had seen 
the white man, and he had now gone to break his fast ! 

The next interview, which took place after M'tesa 
had satisfied his hunger, was quite satisfactory : friendly 
relations were established, and although he was drawn 
into court intrigues (out of which he tactfully managed 
to emerge without trouble), and was kept at Uganda 
for many months waiting for M'tesa to grant permis- 
sion for him to proceed to the lake, Speke learned 
much of value from the black king, and incidentally 
taught him a good many things. 

The white man's weapons, naturally, aroused much 
interest, and when Speke gave the black king a carbine, 
ready loaded, M'tesa handed it to one of his attendants 
— a mere boy — ^and told him to go out into the court- 



122 The Boy's Book of Pioneers 

yard and experiment with it on a man. Before Speke 
knew what was afoot the youngster had gone, to return 
in a few minutes *' to announce his success, with a look 
of glee such as one would see in the face of a boy who 
had robbed a bird's nest, caught trout, or done any other 
boyish trick " ! 

The delay at Uganda was very annoying, yet there 
was nothing for it but to await the king's pleasure. As 
a matter of fact, M'tesa seemed to have little pleasure in 
anything except cruelty : he was the most despotic 
ruler — an African Nero almost. For the slightest excuse 
— ^and very often without any — he would have men and 
women executed; in some cases he would be the execu- 
tioner himself, and Speke was hard put to it on 
occasions to refrain from interfering. He realised, how- 
ever, that after all the tyrant was the ruler of the land, 
and that his ideas of justice were very different from 
those of Europe. On one occasion Speke could not 
resist the impulse to step in. It happened during an 
excursion to Nyanza. M'tesa had suddenly conceived 
the idea of going on a trip to the sheet of water, and in 
great haste Speke followed him, having his kit forwarded 
next day. When they arrived at the lake they went 
picnicking, and one of M'tesa's wives, thinking to 
please the chief, plucked a fruit and offered it to him. 
M'tesa went into a towering rage, vowing that no 
woman had ever dared to offer him anything before, 
and he commanded his pages to seize the woman and 
lead her to execution ! 

A swarm of black imps proimptly fell upon the 
queen, whom they soon bound, and were leading away 
when others of the king's wives fell upon their knees 
and pleaded for her life. M'tesa was adamant, and 
seizing a heavy stick, began to belabour the unfortunate 
woman. 

"This act of barbarism," Speke wrote, "was too 



The Mystery River of Africa 123 

much for my English blood to stand, and as I heard 
my name [native] ' Mzungu ' imploringly pronounced, I 
rushed at the king and, staying his uplifted hand, 
demanded from him the woman's life." It was a risky 
proceeding. So savage was the king in his rage that 
Speke would not have been astonished if he had com- 
manded his warriors to kill the man who had dared to 
interfere. Instead, the very effrontery of the thing took 
the wind out of the king's sails, and, smiling, he ordered 
the woman to be released. 

It is not difficult to understand the feelings of Speke 
at the delays which kept him in Uganda at the whim of 
a savage king : he was within a fortnight's journey of 
his goal and yet could not budge. Month after month 
went by, and whenever he asked permission to move, 
some reason or other was given as an excuse for keeping 
him. He presented M'tesa with all kinds of gifts, in- 
structed him in the use of guns, bribed officials un- 
availingly, for nothing happened : the whimsical king 
hated the thought of the white man leaving. And 
down at Karagu6 Grant was also held up : he was ill, 
and when he recovered sufficiently to push on, it took a 
good deal of diplomacy to obtain permission for him to 
advance. 

But at last Grant arrived at Uganda, the king gave 
his promise that the white men might go foi-ward, and 
on July 7 the explorers, with a goodly company of 
natives, began their march down the northern slopes of 
Africa, heading for Nyanza. On the way there was 
trouble with natives. At Kari one of Speke's men was 
murdered, and cows were stolen ; on another day some 
of the men were ambushed by Waganda, and one night 
these natives set fire to the huts in which Speke's escort 
were sleeping. 

Travelling was very slow, both because of these 
troubles and owing to Grant's legs being bad, so on 



124 The Boy's Book of Pioneers 

the 1 8th Speke altered his plans : instead of going in 
company the party split up, Grant heading for the 
village of Kamrasi, a petty king who was to be like a 
dragon on their road, and Speke striking for Urondo- 
gani, on the east. 

A large river, the Luajerri, lay in Speke's path, 
across which the party forded — the cows swimming 
across, and the men hanging on to their tails. At the 
farther bank they had to take to boats because of the 
depth of the water, and it took "no less than four 
hours, mosquitoes in myriads biting our bare backs and 
legs all the while. The Luajerri [wrote Speke] is said 
to rise in the lake and fall into the Nile due south of 
our crossing point. On the right bank wild buffalo are 
described to be numerous as cows, but we did not see 
any, though the country is covered with a most inviting 
jungle for sport, intermediate with lays of fine grazing 
grass. Such is the nature of the country all the way 
to Urondogani, except in some favoured spots, kept as 
tidily as in any part of Uganda, where plantains grow 
to the utmost luxuriance." 

After crossing the river, Speke had a world of 
troubles before him : he had no guides to show the 
way, and the natives thereabouts were not kindly dis- 
posed to the white man, whom they misled whenever 
they got a chance, so that time and time again the way 
was lost. But at last Urondogani was reached, where 
Speke hoped to be able to get boats in which to go 
down the river, for at last, as he wrote, "I stood on 
the brink of the Nile. Most beautiful was the scene, 
nothing could surpass it ! It was the very perfection 
of the kind of effect aimed at in a highly kept park, 
with a magnificent stream from 600 to 700 yards wide, 
dotted with islets and rocks — the former occupied by 
fishermen's huts, the latter by sterns and crocodiles 
basking in the sun — flowing between fine high grassy 



The Mystery River of Africa 125 

banks, with rich trees and plantains in the background, 
where herds of the nsunnu and hartebeest could be seen 
grazing, while hippopotami were snorting in the water, 
and florikan and guinea-fowl rising at our feet." 

Elephants, lions, antelopes were abundant in the 
country round about, and the explorer had good sport 
while he stayed there. His anxiety to proceed, how- 
ever, and convince himself that he had indeed dis- 
covered the main source of the Nile made him keen 
to be going forward, and he was angered at the delays 
the native officials endeavoured to put in his way. 
Boats, they said, were not available. Speke demanded 
them, and while they were being collected, went explor- 
ing along the left bank of the river to the Isama Rapids. 
Thence, "with a good push for it, crossing hills and 
threading huge grasses, as well as extensive village 
plantations lately devastated by elephants, we arrived 
at the extreme end of the journey, the farthest point 
ever visited by the expedition, on the same parallel of 
latitude as King M'tesa's palace, and just forty miles 
east of it." 

This brought the explorer to the magnificent falls 
which, in honour of the President of the Royal 
Geographical Society, he christened Ripon Falls. 

"The expedition had now performed its functions," 
he wrote. "I saw that old Father Nile without any 
doubt rises in the Victoria Nyanza"; and it is easy to 
imagine the delight of Speke at having achieved so 
much : the mystery of the Nile was solved. 

Complaints having been made to M'tesa of the diffi- 
culty put in the white man's way of procuring boats, 
the matter was quickly rectified by the black tyrant, and 
Speke, with a dozen Wanguana, Kasoro, a native 
official and a small crew, set out in five boats on his 
first voyage on the Nile, bound for Unyoro, where 
Kamrasi held court. There was a little affray between 



126 The Boy's Book of Pioneers 

the Wanguana and some Wanyoro, which Speke 
patched up, to the dismay of the Wanguana. When 
they entered the territory of Kamrasi a host of natives 
prepared to bar the way : the war drums rattled on both 
sides of the river, canoes laden with warriors attempted 
to cut the explorers off, and Speke had to give the 
order to retire. Night was falling; the Wanyoro were 
stealing upon them in the darkness. It was a tense 
moment, and, to make matters worse, Speke 's men were 
scared out of their wits. When, suddenly, a Wanyoro 
canoe slipped through the darkness and the warriors 
attacked one of his boats, Speke roared to his men to 
" Go in, and the victory will be ours ! " But they were 
paralysed with fright, and it might have gone ill with 
the expedition had not three lucky shots, taken hap- 
hazard in the darkness, exacted toll of the Wanyoro, 
who in their turn were frightened and fled. 

But the trouble was not all over. The petty chief 
of the district, Nyamyonjo, resented the white man's 
presence, and as he was strong and did not care for 
anyone, and would not give permission for Speke to 
go down the river, the explorer had to turn his back on 
the Nile and go to the Luajerri. It was galling to think 
that one of the objects of the expedition, the opening 
up of the country thereabouts, was likely to be 
frustrated, for Kamrasi was not friendly. Speke had 
sent a message to him on the matter of opening a trade 
with England. Speke's men advised him to go back to 
M'tesa, which proposal he scouted. A couple of days 
later, after seeking to pick up Grant's trail, the two 
parties met, and Speke learned that Kamrasi had 
refused to open the road, and had ordered him to 
leave his capital. Queer reasons for the king's hostility 
were given. The first was that the white men were 
cannibals, and the second that the very fact of their 
having marched in on two roads with Waganda 



The Mystery River of Africa 127 

escort (enemies of Kamrasi) proved their unfriendly 
intentions. 

And he positively refused to receive the white 
men. 

Here was a poser : they were determined to go 
forward to Gondokoro, and they must pass through 
Kamrasi's country. What could be done? No native 
messengers could be found willing to risk being 
ambassadors to Kamrasi. The explorers considered the 
question of enlisting the aid of M'tesa, who, for a con- 
sideration, would lend a thousand warriors, with whom 
a way could be forced, but that was rejected, and while 
they were still wondering what to do, a native friend 
of Speke's, Kidgwiga, and Vittagura, Kamrasi's com- 
mander-in-chief, came into the camp with an invitation 
from the fickle king I After a little difficulty about the 
Waganda and their probable reception by Kamrasi, 
the expedition marched forward again. There was a 
mutiny of the Wanguana for ammunition, which the 
explorers soon quelled ; three days were lost in settling 
little matters of etiquette raised by the Wanyoro; more 
time by squabbles of various kinds, the chief being that 
the Waganda wanted the explorers to turn back for 
M'tesa's. They threatened Speke and Grant, and on 
the white men taking up a determined stand, deserted 
in a body, leaving the explorers with a force of only 
twenty men. News of the trouble reached Kamrasi, 
who sent half a hundred warriors to handle the 
Waganda, who, however, had gone when these arrived. 
Another hundred and fifty Wanyoro arrived later, and 
the expedition was able to proceed slowly, arriving at 
Kamrasi's palace at last. 

They were fairly well received, but Kamrasi proved 
as fickle as M'tesa, for the explorers were held up for 
weeks awaiting permission to proceed. 

Even when they did start, slow progress was the 



128 The Boy's Book of Pioneers 

order for various reasons, but they reached the Karuma 
Falls, crossed the river, and struck out across the Kidi 
Wilderness, full of jungles and swamps, and arrived at 
Madi, where they were received affectionately by a 
black man named Mohammed. This worthy had a regi- 
ment of ragamuffin Nubians, Egyptians and slaves, and 
told the explorers that he was there to take them to an 
Englishman named Petherick (a man Speke had met in 
London and who had offered to have boats ready for 
him at Gondokoro to take him to the coast). Speke's 
great anxiety had been to reach the appointed place in 
quick time, lest the boats should have departed. 
Mohammed, like the native kings, was bent on delaying 
the explorers for his own gain, but Speke refused to be 
held up unduly, and went on without him, and arrived 
at Paira, within sight of the Nile once more. From 
Paira to Apuddo, where a tree was found marked 
"M. I.," said by the Turks who had joined the expedi- 
tion to have been cut in by an Englishman who had 
come down from Gondokoro with Mohammed two years 
before, and who had gone back because he was alarmed 
at the accounts given him of the people to the south. 

Later Mohammed himself joined the party, and 
when within a few days' march of Gondokoro, the 
explorers received news of three white men who had 
arrived at Gondokoro in ships, and on reaching that 
place who should the explorers run into but Samuel 
Baker, who was endeavouring to trace the source of 
the Nile by going up its course ! 

That was a joyous meeting, to be sure, and the men 
had much to tell each other. Petherick, by the way, 
had not kept his promise, at which Speke was rather 
sore. Baker offered his boats to Speke and Grant to 
take them to Khartoum, and, says Speke, "asked me 
if there was anything left undone which it might be 
of importance for him to go on and complete, by 



The Mystery River of Africa 129 

survey or otherwise, for, although he should like to 
go down the river with us, he did not wish to return 
home without having done something to recompense 
him for the trouble and expense he had incurred." Of 
what Sir Samuel Baker achieved we shall tell in the 
next chapter, but here we must give Baker's account 
of the meeting. 

"When I first met them," he wrote, "they were 
walking along the bank of the river towards my boats. 
At a distance of about a hundred yards I recognised 
my old friend Speke, and with a heart beating with 
joy I took off my hat and gave a welcome ' Hurrah ! ' 
as I ran towards him. For the moment he did not 
recognise me." 

Speke says, " My old friend Baker seized me by the 
hand. What joy this was I can hardly tell. We 
could not talk fast enough, so overwhelmed were we to 
meet again. 

"We were shortly seated on deck under the 
awning," said Baker, "and such rough fare as could be 
hastily prepared was set before these two ragged, care- 
worn specimens of African travel, whom I looked upon 
with feelings of pride as my countrymen. As a good 
ship arrives in harbour, battered and torn by a long and 
stormy voyage, yet sound in her frame and seaworthy 
to the last, so both these gallant travellers arrived in 
Gondokoro. . . . Both men had a fire in the eye that 
showed the spirit that had led them through." 

After a few days' rest, Speke and Grant went down 
the Nile in Baker's boats to Khartoum, thence to Cairo 
by camels and boats, having walked thirteen hundred 
miles through the equatorial regions of Africa, and 
having dwelt for nearly three years amongst savages, 
always at the mercy of the barbarous potentates who 
held life and death in their hands. But the great 
problem of the Nile had been solved. 

J 



BAKER AT ALBERT EDWARD 

How the Work of Speke and Grant was Carried to 
Completion 

WE have seen how, when Speke and Grant arrived 
at Gondokoro, they met Samuel White Baker; 
and it is time now to tell of the pioneering of the latter. 
He, like Speke, had been keen on discovering the source 
of the Nile, but had set out from a different point. He 
started from Cairo, shipped down the Nile to Korosko, 
then struck out across the Nubian Desert for Berber, by 
this means cutting off a wide bend of the Nile; and in 
the summer of 1861 changed his immediate plans. He 
had been the victim of much trouble at the hands of the 
interpreters, and, realising that his expedition would 
suffer if he had to depend upon them, he resolved to 
spend the next year in learning Arabic, and so be 
independent. Not that he wasted any time : he ex- 
plored during that period the Atbara, Settite, Royan, 
Salaam and various other tributaries of the Nile; an?i 
covered much of the ground which Bruce, the seven- 
teenth century explorer, had visited on the borders of 
Abyssinia. And then, having learnt his Arabic, he went 
back to Khartoum to prepare in earnest for the expedi- 
tion to the Nile source. 

His companion on his travels was his wife, a lady as 
fearless as Baker himself. 

On December 18, 1862 — having been delayed by 
the hostility, open and concealed, of the traffickers in 
slaves, who anticipated, rightly, the ruin of their trade 
as the result of the coming of the European — Baker, 

130 



Baker at Albert Edward 131 

with a company of ninety people, twenty-nine camels, 
asses and horses, in three ships, set off down the Nile 
for Gondokoro. The journey took six weeks, and was 
by no means easy-going. From Bahr-el-Ghazel junc- 
tion navigation on the White Nile was difficult. Baker 
wrote of it thus : 

"Through this region of desolation the river winds 
its tortuous course, like an entangled skein of thread; 
no wind was favourable, owing to the constant turns; the 
current adverse; no possibility of advance except by 
towing; the men struggling night and day through 
water and high rapids with the tow-rope, exhausted with 
a hopeless labour and maddened with clouds of 
mosquitoes. Far as the eye can reach in that land of 
misery and malaria all is wretchedness. . . . Nothing 
in life is so depressing as this melancholy river." 

But at last Gondokoro was reached, and Baker found 
it "a perfect hell, a colony of cut-throats, and the centre 
of the slave trade. At all hours of the day the clanking 
of the chains could be heard, and with such effrontery 
was the trade pursued by the ruffians, who bribed the 
Khartoum authorities into permitting any rascality, that 
a cargo arrived under the Stars and Stripes, the owner 
being a captain whose son acted as the United States 
Consul at Khartoum. Bullets were flying about day 
and night, and murders among the drunken scoundrels 
were of such constant occurrence that no one thought 
of asking the reason why, while the innocent natives 
were shot down with a recklessness worthy of some of 
the savage kinds whose acquaintance we have made." 
And Captain Grant wrote of the vile place that "while 
camped on the Nile at Gondokoro, the sounds were 
either the hippopotamus or the rifle, the one much more 
pleasant than the other; the heavy trumpeting of the 
former reverberating either up or down stream was 
delicious music to the ear, but the crack of the rifle only 



132 The Boy's Book of Pioneers 

made me dread that some poor native had fallen its 
victim." 

Such was the place where Baker and his friendly, 
successful rivals met. To Baker, Speke's success meant 
a great disappointment; but, a true sportsman, he did 
not complain at having been forestalled, neither did he 
give up all idea of continuing his journey. He asked 
if there was not "a laurel leaf remaining for him," and 
the explorers told him of Luta N'zige, a lake lying west- 
wards of Tanganyika, into which, the natives declared, 
the Nile entered by the north, emerging almost im- 
mediately and flowing northwards through Koshi and 
the Madi countries. 

"I now heard," Baker wrote, "that the field was not 
only open, but that an additional interest was given to 
the exploration by the proof that the Nile flowed out 
of one great lake, the Victoria, but that it evidently 
must derive an additional supply from an unknown 
lake, as it entered in at the northern extremity, while 
the body of the lake came from the south. The fact of 
a great body of water like the Luta N'zige extending 
in a direct line from south to north, while the general 
system of drainage of the Nile was from the same direc- 
tion, showed most conclusively that the Luta N'zige, if 
it existed in the form assumed, must have an important 
position in the basin of the Nile." 

Baker bade farewell at last to the two white men, 
and watched their boat as it went down the river; it 
was to be many a long day before he himself was to go 
that way, and many were the dangers he was to run. 

And they began almost before the other Englishmen 
had disappeared. 

Mahommed, of the Speke expedition, was appealed 
to by Baker for carriers for his trade goods, but the 
rascal, promising what was asked, intrigued with 
Baker's own men, trying to get them to desert him. It 



Baker at Albert Edward 133 

was a conspiracy designed to keep the white man from 
going farther, lest he put a spoke in the wheel of the 
slave-traders. The mutiny, which assumed serious pro- 
portions, failed, owing to the fearlessness and tact of 
Baker. The white man sacked all his mutinous porters 
except seventeen, who agreed to follow him — if he went 
east. Now, Baker wanted to go south; but circum- 
stances were against him, and, as he must have carriers, 
he agreed to go east. As a matter of fact, the natives' 
plan was to desert him when they had been gone about 
seven days from Gondokoro ; and they openly threatened 
to shoot Baker if he dared try to relieve them of their 
weapons, promising also, if he attempted such a thing, 
to leave his wife undefended in the jungle ! 

Baker endeavoured to come to an arrangement with 
a slave-trader to allow him to accompany the caravan, 
but the ruffian chief not only refused this, but vowed to 
shoot him if he attempted to follow his route, although 
he knew that was the road Baker now wished to take. 
The chief capped his threat by declaring that he would 
raise against the explorer a tribe in the Ellyria Moun- 
tains, who had an unenviable reputation for murder. 

Undeterred by such threats, Baker waited until the 
last caravan had left Gondokoro, and then set off 
towards Ellyria, following in the tracks of one of the 
hostile parties. Without a guide, the intrepid explorer 
led his seventeen carriers through ravines and jungles, 
and, although the route was difficult, and the men sullen 
— declaring that twenty-one donkeys and three camels 
were too many to look after — the party succeeded in 
overtaking and passing the last caravan, picking up two 
natives of a tribe who had been ill-treated by the 
"Turks," but to whom Baker had been kind. These 
men took on the task of guiding the expedition to 
Ellyria, and in order to reach that country before the 
hostile traders, who would have raised the natives 



134 The Boy's Book of Pioneers 

against the white man, a forced march was necessary. 
The animals, therefore, had their burdens lightened by 
the throwing away of much valuable stores, and the 
explorer pushed on, full of hope. 

Only to be disappointed; he was outmarched by a 
caravan under a chief named Ibrahim. That worthy 
had a hundred and forty men with him, and was one of 
those who had threatened to raise the Ellyrian tribe 
against the white man. It was a critical moment, and 
the situation was saved by Mrs. Baker. 

As Ibrahim, cynical, scornful, rode by with his 
cavalcade of ruffians, Baker hesitated as to what to do ; 
whether to endeavour to bribe the chief or whether to 
beard him boldly. Mrs. Baker, however, took the bull 
by the horns, and hailed the chief. A scowl in return 
would have meant the doom of the expedition ; but 
Ibrahim heard the call of the white woman, who asked 
him to remember old acquaintances. 

He dismounted, and advanced to meet the white man 
and his wife. 

Negotiations were opened, during which Baker was 
friendly, but firm. 

"Why should we be enemies in the midst of this 
heathen country?" he demanded. "We believe in the 
one God ; why should we quarrel in this land of heathen 
who know not Allah ? You have your work to per- 
form ; I have mine. You want ivory; I am simply a 
traveller. Why should we clash ? If I were offered the 
whole of the ivory of the country I should not accept a 
single tusk, nor interfere with you in any way. Transact 
your business and don't interfere with me; the country 
is wide enough for us both. I have a task before me — to 
reach a great lake, the head of the Nile, and reach it I will. 
No power shall drive me back. If you are hostile I will 
imprison you at Khartoum; if you assist me I will re- 
ward you far beyond any reward you have ever received. 



Baker at Albert Edward 135 

Should I be killed in this country you will be suspected. 
You know the result : the Government would hang you 
on a bare suspicion. On the contrary, if you are 
friendly, I will use my influence in any country that I 
discover that you may procure the ivory for the sake of 
your master, Koorshid. . . . Should you be hostile, I 
shall hold your master responsible as your employer. 
Should you assist me, I will befriend you both. Choose 
your course frankly, like a man — friend or enemy." 

It was a fearless challenge, warranted either to in- 
furiate or to pacify a foe I 

Mrs. Baker then chimed in with a picture of the 
doom of a man who dared to touch a British subject, 
and the advantages to be gained by joining hands; and 
while the chief hesitated Baker handed over to him a 
double-barrelled gun and some gold, and Ibrahim was 
won. . . . 

The arrangement between Baker and Ibrahim dis- 
concerted the former's followers, who had intended to 
desert about that time ; they waited, however, until they 
arrived at Latoome, in the Latooka country, where they 
met a rival trader to Ibrahim. When Baker gave the 
order to load up, they refused. One of them — the ring- 
leader — went up to Baker, dashed his gun on the 
ground, and cried : 

"Not a man shall go with you 1 Go where you like 
with Ibrahim, but we won't follow you, nor move a 
step farther. The men shall not load the camels; you 
may employ the niggers to do it, but not us." 

"Lay down your gun and load the camels I " Baker 
roared at him. 

"I won't! " the man cried. 

"Then stop here," was Baker's reply, as, with a 
good old-fashioned English punch from the shoulder 
he laid the man prostrate on the ground. 

It was a critical moment, and Baker knew it : only 



136 The Boy's Book of Pioneers 

stern measures would save his expedition from disaster. 
He went for that crowd of mutineers, catching one after 
another by the throat and shaking into them some sort 
of idea of what was coming if they did not do their 
duty. They were utterly cowed; he stood over them 
with a loaded rifle and made them prepare for departure. 

Terrified at the hardihood of the man who had en- 
gaged them, the ringleader and four other men deserted, 
and went to join a marauding band, under one Ma- 
hommed Her, who was in the neighbourhood. Baker 
realised that this defection was likely to result in other 
desertions, and he assumed the role of soothsayer : 

"The vultures shall pick their bones ! " he cried. 

Events caused his men to have a great reverence for 
the prophecies of the white man, for, later on, the 
raiders were defeated, and when Baker saw them re- 
treat — the fight had taken place within sight of the 
caravan — he cried : 

" Where are the men who deserted me ? " 

And his men, who were "green with fear," brought 
him two of the guns which had been taken by the 
deserters. 

"Are they all dead ? " he demanded. 

"All dead ! " was the reply. 

" Food for the vultures ! " exclaimed Baker im- 
pressively, remembering what he had said. "Better 
for them had they remained with me and done their 
duty. The hand of God is heavy ! " 

These events brought about a great change in the 
conduct of his own men and those under Ibrahim ; he, 
however, had later to return to Gondokoro. During his 
absence his men committed various excesses in Latooka, 
and the tribe rose up to take vengeance. One evening 
Baker and his wife heard a strange wailing come across 
the desert, then heard the beating of the war drums. 
Instantly Baker was alert, sensing an attack, if not upon 



Baker at Albert Edward 137 

him, then upon the traders. As his safety depended 
upon the traders, Baker resolved to take steps to pre- 
vent their being overwhelmed. He called the Arabs to 
arms, formed up all the men in a square, and while 
Mrs. Baker, ever prepared to help, got ready ammuni- 
tion. Baker ordered the traders to beat their own war 
drums to let the natives know they were not to be taken 
by surprise. 

And when the hostile chief appeared at the head of 
his men, and found the place ready against attack, he 
thought discretion the better part of valour, and 
withdrew. 

The time came to move from Latooka, and Baker 
went forward in the direction he had chosen. His idea 
was to move into the interior, cross the mountain range 
forming the watershed between the White Nile and the 
Sobat, and then to work round to the south-west to 
Unyoro, thence to Luta N'zige. In performance of this 
plan he reached the Obbo Land, whence he set out for 
Unyoro, losing all his porters before he arrived at the 
Karuma Falls, the place where Speke and Grant had 
crossed the Nile a short time previously. 

Kamrasi, who had been hostile to Speke and his 
fellow-pioneer, was none the less opposed to Baker ; his 
warriors lined the opposite bank and brandished their 
spears, defying the white folk to cross. By dint of 
much gesticulation, Baker obtained a hearing, and was 
allowed to cross, taking care to carry with him the 
presents for King Kamrasi, who, it seemed, had par- 
ticularly resented the coming of the white man owing 
to the fact that Mahommed, who had intrigued with his 
men at Gondokoro, had been raiding the country and 
sending natives for slaves, and the savage chief 
suspected Baker of being of the same kidney. 

After a difficult journey, Baker succeeded in reaching 
Kamrasi 's capital, M'rooli, where he was well received, 



138 The Boy's Book of Pioneers 

and obtained many kindnesses at the hand of the king, 
who, seeing that the white man was severely stricken 
with fever, had him carried in a litter to his hut, and 
made him many presents. 

Mrs. Baker also, who had been Baker's chief com- 
fort during all the trying fourteen months since he left 
Khartoum, was ill with fever, and the explorers found 
themselves in a sorry plight. Yet, despite all this, the 
courageous couple determined to press on without delay 
to Luta N'zige — if Kamrasi would grant permission. 
That dusky potentate, however, was not at all eager for 
the white folk to penetrate his country any farther, and 
laid all kinds of obstacles in their path. He tried to 
scare them by hinting at dangers on the road, the 
length of the way ' thither — six months he put it at, 
although Baker had been given to understand it was 
only ten days' distant. 

"For twelve weeks I had been employed in repairing 
guns," he wrote, "doctoring the sick, and attending the 
wounded of the ivory hunter's party, simply to gain 
sufficient influence to enable me to procure porters. 
That accomplished, I had arrived at this spot, only six 
days' march from the Victoria Lake, and had hoped that 
a ten days' westerly march would enable me to reach the 
Mwutan N'zige (Kamrasi's name for the lake). I now 
heard that it was six months' journey 1 I was ill with 
daily fever, my wife likewise. I had no quinine, 
neither any supplies, such as coffee, tea, etc., nothing 
but water, and the common food of the natives — good 
enough when in strong health, but uneatable in sick- 
ness." 

Then Ibrahim's men left, and Baker found himself 
with thirteen servants to face the perils of Mid- Africa ! 

To cap their troubles, the rain was torrential, 
mosquitoes were a perfect pest, and King Kamrasi was 
a scoundrelly blackmailer, who squeezed everything he 



Baker at Albert Edward 139 

could out of the white man ; and it was only when 
there was nothing more to squeeze that he offered to 
allow him to proceed — on one condition. 

That condition was that he left his wife behind him 
as a present to Kamrasi 1 

Baker was angry. 

He pulled out his revolver, held it at the head of 
the king, and told him that if he moved he was a dead 
man. Then Mrs. Baker gave Kamrasi a piece of her 
mind : he didn't understand what she said, for it was 
in Arabic, but he had a fair idea that the white folk 
were not at all pleased with him. He apologised, vowed 
he didn't know he was offering insult, and promised 
Baker a wife in the place of Mrs. Baker ! 

"It is my custom," he said, "to give my visitors 
pretty wives, and I thought you might exchange. Don't 
make a fuss about it; if you don't like it, there's an 
end of it. I will never mention it again." 

So Kamrasi allowed Baker to proceed, sending with 
him a couple of guides and an escort of three hundred 
men, who were such scoundrels, raiding every place 
they came to, that Baker was glad when he was able to 
get rid of them, sending them back to their king. 

It was no easy journey, for the carriers were not 
fond of work, and nearly every day some of them 
would bolt, and the expedition be delayed while Baker 
foraged around seeking others to take their places. 
There were rivers to be crossed, and much hard going. 
At one place, when crossing the Kefu River, Mrs. 
Baker was taken ill and fell in a dead faint, apparently 
from sunstroke. For seven days she remained in a 
coma, and had to be carried through torrential rains, 
through a swampy, jungle-filled country. 

To stop until the white woman recovered was out of 
the question ; there was no food, no shelter to be 
obtained, and the expedition was spurred on by Baker, 



140 The Boy's Book of Pioneers 

who, day and night, watched over his wife, until 
physical exhaustion compelled him to call a halt : he 
could go no farther until he had rested. 

That night, like many another, was spent with the 
heavens as a canopy and the wet ground as a bed, 
and Baker lay wondering what the end of it all might 
he. Near him lay death-like the woman he loved; he 
hardly dared hope that she would recover. His men, 
always with an eye to the main chance, began to divide 
in their own minds the spoils of the expedition, every 
one of them thinking that the great disaster had come 
to the white people. They even made new handles for 
their pickaxes, with which to dig the graves ! 

But death was cheated. During the night Mrs. 
Baker came back to the world of life and feeling, and, 
although she was weak, after two days' rest she 
insisted upon the expedition going forward. 

A great hope now filled Baker. His guides told him 
that they were almost at the great lake; and, true 
enough, the next day, March 14, 1864, the travellers, 
standing on the summit of a hill, saw the shining 
waters of Luta N'zige before them. 

"Far below, some 1,500 feet beneath a precipitous 
cliff of granite, lay my prize so hardly sought; a 
boundless sea horizon south and south-west, while west, 
the faint blue mountains, of about 7,000 feet above the 
water-level, hemmed in the glorious expanse of water. 
Weak and exhausted, I tottered down the steep and zig- 
zag path, and in about two hours I reached the shore. 
The waves were rolling upon a beach of sand, and as 
I drank the water and bathed my face in the welcome 
flood, with a feeling of gratitude for success, I named 
this great basin of the Nile (subject to Her Majesty's 
permission) the Albert Nyanza. . . . The Victoria and 
Albert Nyanza are the reservoirs of the Nile." 

Having discovered the lake, Baker and his wife em- 



Baker at Albert Edward 141 

barked in canoes, and explored its coast from Vacovia 
to Magungo, near the spot where the Nile enters the 
northern end — the first white people to visit the place. 
From there they went up the Nile about twenty-five 
miles, to the Murchison Falls, and then, landing, struck 
out across country. 

The land was filled with warring tribes : Kamrasi 
and another chief named Fowooka were at war, and the 
carriers, probably because they did not know what 
might happen to them, deserted, leaving the explorers 
stranded. Their oxen had died with the exception of 
one; Baker and his wife were stricken with fever, they 
had little food, barely enough to keep body and soul 
together; they could not go for aid because it was the 
rainy season, and Kamrasi was too busy fighting to 
trouble about them just then. 

Eventually Kamrasi sent an escort, though not 
before he had demanded that guns should be given him 
with which to wipe out his enemies. Baker had sent 
word that he would not consider this matter until he 
was at Kamrasi 's camp, and, when he arrived there, 
found things in a pretty bad state. Fowooka had allied 
himself with a band of traders who had accompanied 
Speke up to Gondokoro, and the warriors crossed the 
river to attack Kamrasi's camp. 

The king was in a terrible panic, and Baker, dis- 
gusted with him when he discovered this, told him "to 
pack up his things and run," but that, if he stayed, he, 
Baker, would see him through the trouble. 

Then Baker planted the Union Jack outside his hut, 
and sent messengers to the raiders telling them that 
Kamrasi and his country were under the protection of 
England, and that the penalty of attacking would be on 
the heads of Kamrasi's enemies. When the foe advanced 
and saw the red, white and blue flying gaily in the 
breeze, they were too scared at the symbol of Britain's 



142 The Boy's Book of Pioneers 

might to attack, and withdrew without firing a shot — 
much to the amazement of Kamrasi. 

Baker found that his power to avert evil from Kam- 
rasi was not an altogether unmixed blessing : the king 
wanted him to remain for ever in Unyoro; and, worse 
than all, M'tesa of Uganda was jealous of the white man 
being in Kamrasi 's country, which he invaded and 
desolated — to the terror of Kamrasi, who fled, leaving 
Baker to his own resources. 

It was a bad outlook for the explorer, who sent 
messengers post haste to Ibrahim, fortunately still in the 
country, asking his assistance. Ibrahim, perhaps only 
in the hope of obtaining rich plunder of ivory from 
Unyoro, arrived as soon as he could, and, M'tesa hav- 
ing gone back to Uganda, Baker, robbed of everything 
of value except his guns and ammunition, prepared to 
leave Unyoro. 

Kamrasi refused to allow him to go unless he left 
the all-powerful Union Jack behind. Baker argued 
with him, and then clenched the matter by vowing that 
the bit of red, white and blue was no good "unless in 
the hands of an Englishman." 

Having thus overridden the obstructionist policy of 
King Kamrasi, Baker was able to leave the country, 
and after many adventures arrived back at Gondo- 
koro. Not even then were his troubles over. No boats 
awaited him; the outside world had given him up as 
lost, for he had been away nearly two years, and no 
news had been received of him. And, to make matters 
worse at Gondokoro, the slave-trade centre, news had 
been received that the Egyptian authorities had issued 
an edict against the slave traffic. The owners of the 
slaves knew that this was the result of the influence of 
the "Infidels," of whom Baker was one, and it was an 
uncomfortable time that the explorer and his wife spent 
in the hades of the desert. 



Baker at Albert Edward 143 

But at last Baker was able to get away from Gondo- 
koro, and in due course arrived at Cairo, where he took 
ship to England. 

He received a rare welcome : for the work he had 
done was valuable both from a geographical point of 
view and a commercial, for his labours had paved the 
way for the opening up of better trade routes for the 
ivory, and he had laid the foundations of that splendid 
work which he did later in the putting down of the 
slave trade in the Soudan, over which he was appointed 
ruler, being given the rank of Pasha by the Khedive. 



THE MAN ^)0^HO WALKED ACROSS 
AFRICA 

The Story of Cameron's Stupendous 3,000-Mile 
Journey on Foot 

In a previous chapter we have told the story of Living- 
stone, the missionary pioneer of the heart of unknown 
Africa. The Stanley Expedition which went in quest 
of him, and succeeded in locating the heroic doctor, 
brought back information of great discoveries, and this 
whetted the geographical appetite of those at home, 
who resolved to follow up these discoveries, and for this 
purpose fitted out another expedition out of the surplus 
fund of the first relief expedition. The idea was to 
send the expedition under command of Lieutenant 
Verney Lovett Cameron, who was to receive instructions 
from Livingstone as to the course to be adopted. That 
intention was frustrated — when Cameron was in the 
heart of Africa — by the death of the missionary, and 
Cameron, instead of having the advantage of the counsel 
of Livingstone, had to go unaided. More than this, he 
had none too much of this world's goods with him with 
which to pay tribute to extortionate chiefs, neither had 
he the most robust of constitutions; indeed, the folk at 
home predicted that he would never withstand the hard- 
ships before him. That he did was due to his in- 
domitable spirit — that spirit which urges men on into 
the unknown that they may blaze the trail for 
civilisation. . . . 

Three Britishers comprised the expedition at the 
beginning : Cameron, who had seen a good deal of 
naval service on the east coast of Africa; Dr. Dillon, 

144 



Man who Walked Across Africa 145 

one of his best friends; and Lieutenant Murphy, of the 
Royal Artillery. All sorts of things had occasioned 
delay in Zanzibar, not the least being the difficulty of 
obtaining porters, who were very scarce just then 
because so many had been roped in for an expedition 
of Sir Bartle Frere. Eventually, Cameron gathered as 
many as possible, and set out at a time which meant 
that the first part of the journey would have to be done 
during the rainy season. Before he started, however, he 
received with enthusiasm a new recruit, namely, Robert 
Moffat, Livingstone's nephew. 

Off they went, October, 1859, with servants who did 
not like work, and who did not know much about the 
way. Bombay, the native who was in charge of the 
pagazi (carriers) and askari (armed natives) and who had 
accompanied other explorers, was getting old, and was 
by no means as useful as Cameron had hoped he would 
be; more often than not he was a hindrance. Such 
things, however, as these were only trifles, and the pro- 
gress made was very good at the start. At Bagamoyo, 
Murphy had to be left, because he had caught fever 
badly. The rest pushed on to Kikoka, when Moffat 
returned to fetch Murphy. Cameron and Dillon waited 
for the coming of these two : it was a hard journey 
that lay before them, but Cameron knew that they would 
come if it were possible. But it was possible only for 
one. The day arrived when Cameron and Dillon, 
wondering what held up their companions, saw a little 
caravan approaching, led by one white man. Hardly 
able to hold their patience, they waited until that man 
arrived, and then found that it was Murphy. 

"Where is Moffat?" was the first question Murphy 
was asked. 

"Dead," was the answer. He who had gone back 
to fetch up the sick man had himself fallen foul of the 
climate, and had died a martyr's death in the cause of 

K 



146 The Boy's Book of Pioneers 

geographical science. He had given up everything : 
he had had a sugar plantation in Natal, but had sold 
that and gone to Zanzibar to throw in his lot with 
Cameron, and then he had given his life. . . . 

It was a severe blow to the explorers, all of whom 
were suffering from fever; in fact, throughout the 
journey Cameron had intermittent attacks, which some- 
times lasted a good while, and prevented him from 
going on at the rate he desired. Added to this, his feet 
were in a terrible condition, through his having walked 
in slippers through long grass which had poisoned the 
feet, and as, very often, it was impossible to ride his 
donkey owing to the state of the roads (later the donkey 
died), it is easy to imagine what torture he must have 
passed through during the three thousand miles' 
journey 1 

Other troubles were insubordination amongst the 
men, difficulties with tribes who resented their coming, 
and the gradual dwindling of helpers through deser- 
tions. It seemed that troubles were piling up with the 
object of frustrating the expedition, which, when things 
were at the very blackest, was foiled in its object. Both 
Cameron and Dillon were, at Unanijemb^, as ill as 
they could be with fever : Dillon was so bad that 
his sight was going; men had deserted, those who re- 
mained did just as they pleased, robbing the stores and 
neglecting their duties. And then the bombshell. Into 
the camp came a messenger, bringing a letter from 
Jacob Wainwright, addressed to Livingstone's son, 
giving the news of the death of his father. Both 
Cameron and Dillon were so ill that they could not 
understand the letter, and it was only when Chuna, 
Livingstone's faithful servant and the bearer of the 
letter, explained, that they knew, for the letter was 
addressed to Livingstone's son, who Wainwright ima- 
gined was with the expedition. In the flush of their 



Man who Walked Across Africa 147 

fever each of the explorers imagined the letter referred 
to his own father. 

Cameron knew what this meant : that he would not 
have the benefit of the missionary's advice on his ex- 
pedition, for, although the main object seemed to have 
disappeared, he was still determined to push on, and 
Dr. Dillon, ill as he was, threw in his lot with him. 
Not so Murphy, who, considering the work of the 
expedition completed, decided to go back to the coast. 
And then, despite all his determination, Dillon also had 
to go back : so ill was he that his only hope lay in 
getting to the coast quickly, and Cameron said good- 
bye to him, the brave men telling each other that it 
would not be long before they met again. So Murphy 
(who generously volunteered to continue with the ex- 
pedition, though Cameron decided to go alone) accom- 
panied Dillon on the journey back. 

Cameron and Dillon did not meet again. When the 
former had made all arrangements for going forward to 
Ujiji to collect Livingstone's papers, news came to him 
that Dillon had crossed the bar. Tragic had been the 
end; in a delirium of fever the gallant doctor had shot 
himself. . . . 

With such a load of sorrow weighing him down, 
Cameron set forth alone, except, of course, for his 
bearers, on whom he could not rely from one day to 
another. The weather was dreadful. On Christmas 
Day there was a terrible storm, which flooded the tent 
and made life unbearable. The Christmas dinner was a 
failure : it was to consist of a tin of fish, another of 
soup, and the traditional plum pudding. The cook 
upset the soup, forgot to boil the pudding, and a stray 
dog ran off with the fish I 

Still, neither small nor large obstacles could keep 
Cameron from his purpose, and after a trying journey 
he reached Kaw^l^, the capital of Ujiji, where he 



148 The Boy's Book of Pioneers 

obtained Livingstone's papers. Then, before him lay 
the great Lake Tanganyika, which he circumnavigated 
with good scientific results. While he was gone on this 
journey the natives stole most of his trade stores, in- 
cluding the things that he needed to buy the goodwill 
of the tribes through whose territories he would have 
to pass. Thirty loads had been left at KawB6 : four 
only remained, and Cameron knew that to venture with- 
out the goods was to run great risks. 

When, at last, by much perseverance and haggling, 
he did manage to hire canoes to take him over the lake, 
his men, who were terribly afraid of venturing into the 
unknown country beyond the Tanganyika Lake, did 
everything they could to cause delay, even ripping the 
caulking out of the canoes. Other vexatious delays kept 
Cameron at Ujiji until May 22nd, and when a start was 
made the men were so drunk that progress across the 
lake was slow. The men refused to pull across during 
the daytime, and would not move until after sunset. 
In due course the two canoes were at Kivira, where both 
crews deserted — one lot taking the boat with them — 
and Cameron had to engage fresh men to convey the 
other one to its owner at Ujiji. 

But at last these little troubles were over, and 
Cameron was able to set his face westwards beyond the 
lake. His hope was — he had been buoyed up with this 
by natives — that on arriving at Nyangw6 he would be 
able to obtain boats in which he could float down the 
"unknown waters of the Congo to the west coast in 
two or three months," and he was highly pleased at 
the prospect. Syde Mezrui, a native whom he had 
engaged as guide, was positive on this point, and, 
incidentally, it was only the fact of this man's presence 
that enabled Cameron to hold his troublesome men 
together; they were scared at penetrating the unknown 
land unless someone who knew the routes was with 



Man who Walked Across Africa 149 

them. Bombay, the foolish, was a source of trial to the 
explorer, as the following incident will show. Cameron, 
short of carriers, distributed the loads, meaning to 
equalise the weights; instead, Bombay promptly made 
up new bundles of the turned out things, and when the 
time came to start reported that there were more loads 
than carriers ! 

It was a trying march to Nyangw^ : over hills, across 
rivers, through almost impenetrable grass, always with 
the prospect of losing many men through desertion, 
always the likelihood of trouble with the natives. At 
one place the expedition met a caravan commanded by 
Muinyi Hassani, an Arab. Cameron joined them : there 
was security in numbers in going through the country 
of Manyuema, which was anything but a paradise for 
travellers, the natives being cannibals. Still, Cameron 
did not find the caravan an unmixed blessing, for the 
Arabs were not at all friendly, and resented the presence 
of the white man. At one place, after a terrible journey 
through a blazing sun, Cameron pitched his tent under 
a tree for shade. When, later, he went to rest, he found 
that it had been moved, and one of his men said that 
an Arab leader had wanted that place for himself ! The 
white man's tent was promptly put back by Cameron's 
orders, and the Arab blustered until Cameron told him 
to "go to the devil! " It was only this firm attitude 
that enabled Cameron to keep up his end with the 
traders, who were used to having pretty much their own 
way, and who, trafficking in slaves, held life very cheap. 

At another time, after an affray between the natives 
and the traders — settled only by the influence of 
Cameron — the explorer had to show a determined front 
to compel Muinyi Hassani to keep his part of the peace 
terms, namely, the setting free of certain captured 
natives he was carrying off to slavery. 

At last, Nyangw^ was reached.. It was a trading 



150 The Boy's Book of Pioneers 

station between Arabs from the east coast and Portu- 
guese half-castes from the west. It was on the right 
bank of the River Lualaba. Syde Mezrui proved a 
broken reed; he could not procure the canoes necessary 
for the journey down the river. Boats, indeed, were 
only purchasable in exchange for goats, slaves, or 
cowries, and Cameron had none of these things. 
Slaves he refused to deal in, while most of his trade 
goods had been stolen by deserting men. 

He received assistance, however, from an Arab 
named Tipo-tipo, whose camp was on the banks of the 
Lomami, an affluent of the Lualaba to the south. The 
Lualaba, so he was told, flowed into a great lake, named 
Sankorra, which Cameron decided must belong to the 
Congo system, and he wanted to reach it. Tipo-tipo 
told him that the best way was to march overland to 
Sankorra, and Cameron accepted the Arab's invitation 
to journey with him. 

It was necessary to cross the river first, and Bombay, 
instead of getting all the goods over, got drunk, and 
left Cameron on the left bank, a fever-laden swamp, 
without shelter. The result was fever for the explorer, 
who, however, the next morning went on to meet Tipo- 
tipo, whose party had crossed lower down. Fever- 
stricken, with feet so blistered that he had to cut his 
boots, Cameron made a fearful march to Tipo-tipo's 
camping place. Kasongo, chief df the district, in- 
formed him that the way to Sankorra was easy/ except 
that permission must first be obtained from the chief 
man on the opposite bank of the Lomami, and that 
worthy, in reply to the application, sent back : 

"No strangers with guns had ever passed through 
his country, and none should without fighting their 
way." 

Cameron could have obtained sufficient men to have 
fought a way through, but "I felt," he said, "that the 



Man who Walked Across Africa 151 

merit of any geographical discovery would be irretriev- 
ably marred by shedding a drop of native blood except 
in self-defence." 

There was nothing for it but to find another route, 
and Tipo-tipo informed him that by going S.S.W. to 
the capital of the Uruas he might be able to find 
Portuguese traders who could put him in the way of 
reaching the lake. The Arab provided him with three 
guides, and on September 12th Cameron set out. Day 
after day the party went on, suffering, of course, end- 
less delays through desertions and laziness and 
obstinacy. Once the men refused to follow the route 
Cameron believed was right, and went off in a different 
direction. Cameron let them go, and he himself went 
forward and sat down to smoke his pipe, determined to 
see what would happen. Presently, some men came to 
him, saying that he really was on the wrong road. 

"The only right way is the road I want to travel," 
said Cameron calmly, "and that is this direction." 

Bombay next pleaded with him, but Cameron was 
equally firm, and when Bombay assured him that the 
men would run away if he did not go in the other 
direction, Cameron said : 

"Where will they run, you old fool?" 

The natives gave in at last, and they reached a 
village on the banks of the Lukasi, a branch of the 
Lomami. Near here Cameron was attacked by natives, 
who, stealing through the jungle, shot arrows at him. 
One of the missiles caught him on the shoulder, but 
nothing daunted, and not caring how many foes might 
be lurking in the jungle, he made a dash for a man he 
saw. Off like the wind went the native, with Cameron 
after him, only to tumble headlong to the ground. 
Cameron caught him, and gave him as sound a thrash- 
ing as ever he had in his life, and afterwards smashed 
his bow and arrows. 



152 The Boy's Book of Pioneers 

Another batch of natives seemed inclined to attack 
the party, but Cameron won them over by gentler 
means, and he was able to proceed in peace to a village 
called Kamwawi, a few days distant from the capital 
of Urua. 

Here things happened. 

When he was about to start from this camping 
place, Cameron missed his goat — a devoted little beast 
which had followed him like a dog across Africa. It 
had been stolen by the natives, and when Cameron went 
to find it he ran into a hornets' nest. The whole village 
seemed alive with warriors; all the women and children 
had run off into hiding, and as Cameron had no weapons 
with him at the moment when the natives let fly with 
their arrows, things looked very serious. However, 
some of his men came rushing up with arms, and he 
disposed his askari amongst the huts, taking the pre- 
caution of making some of them shift the goods out of 
the camp, which natives immediately Set fire to. Then, 
boldly he went forward to meet the foes, shouting out 
that he was a friend, and did not want to fight. The 
natives' answer was a cloud of arrows, which fortunately 
did no damage. Cameron went back to his caravan, 
and five hundred other natives, who had been in 
ambush, joined the rest, and the whole crowd closed in 
and hurled their fighting spears. 

" Fire I " cried Cameron at last, seeing that stern 
measures were necessary. One important native got 
such a dose of lead that they were all glad to parley, 
and peace was declared — on terms. But before every- 
thing could be settled another band of warriors came 
along and prevailed upon the natives to fight. So the 
scrimmage began again, and Cameron set fire to a hut 
as a foretaste of what would happen if the enemy per- 
sisted in their attitude. It brought them to their senses, 
and the caravan was eventually allowed to depart, 



Man who Walked Across Africa 153 

although closely followed by skulking natives, who kept 
up a flight of arrows for a long time. 

A river was reached, with a village on the farther 
bank, and when Cameron hailed the inhabitants, arrows 
came hurtling through the air in reply ! Without a 
moment's hesitation he called upon his men to follow 
him, and plunged across the river, firing his gun as he 
went, and followed by about half a dozen men. The 
rest of his party promptly bolted ; plucky crew I The 
row made by the firing, shouting handful thoroughly 
scared the natives, who fled from their village as 
Cameron and his few entered. The rest of the caravan 
now turned up, when they thought the danger was past. 
Cameron put the place in a state of defence. For three 
days it was besieged, but the fortunate capture of a 
woman who knew one of Cameron's guides enabled the 
explorer to send her as an emissary of peace, and 
friendly relations were quickly established. 

Then on again, until Kilemba, an Arab settlement, 
was reached, where Cameron found a friend in Jumah 
Merikani, an Arab trader, who treated him well and 
gave him much information of the country. Another 
trader, a Portuguese named Alvez, volunteered to con- 
duct Cameron to the coast in company with a caravan, 
and the explorer accepted the offer, although Alvez 
could not be ready to proceed for a month, which time 
Cameron decided to fill up in looking around the 
country. Incidentally, he could not have left if he had 
wanted to, for Kasongo, the chief, was away, and his 
wife. Fume, assured the explorer that her husband 
would be displeased if the white man went before his 
return, and she forbade him to go away. As Kasongo 
wielded much power, it was unwise to thwart him, and 
so Cameron stayed for week after week. While wait- 
ing he visited Lake Mohyra and saw its lake dwellings, 
in which were many inhabited floating islands. Lake 



154 The Boy's Book of Pioneers 

Kassali he would have visited, and indeed gyot within 
sight of it, and was then held up by a chief, who assured 
him that if he went near it the waters would dry up ! 
And nothing that Cameron could say would induce the 
chief to give permission. The result was that after 
much fruitless delay he had to return to Jumah Meri- 
kani's, where he had to stay until the end of January, 
1875, pending the coming of Kasongo. All the time 
was not wasted, however, for Cameron learned many 
things about the country from the different traders and 
slaves. 

When at last Kasongo did return (he was a very 
young chief) he received the explorer kindly enough, 
but did not allow him to depart as quickly as Cameron 
would have liked. The chief was a most assiduous 
mendicant, begging everything he saw, and it was with 
difficulty that Cameron managed to put him off. 
Kasongo was mighty proud ; he imagined himself the 
greatest man on earth ! Cameron disabused the arrogant 
fellow of this idea, but he could not prevail upon him 
to provide guides and give permission for him to visit 
Lake Sankorra, and, indeed, it was only with the utmost 
difficulty that he could get permission to go away 
at all ! 

The result of Kasongo's veto regarding Sankorra 
was that Cameron had to relinquish his idea of exploring 
the course of the great Congo, and had to be content 
with the possibility of being able to reach the coast 
at Benguela. 

But Alvez, who had agreed to conduct him thither, 
refused to leave until after a lev^e to be held by 
Kasongo, who invited Cameron to attend. Jumah 
Merikani gave Cameron a hint that treachery was in- 
tended, so the explorer took the precaution of going 
armed and accompanied by about a hundred armed men, 
leaving a number of Jumah 's men at the settlement 



Man who Walked Across Africa 155 

ready to take drastic action at the first inkling of 
trouble. 

The natives promptly objected to Cameron and his 
men being armed, but the white man overruled that 
objection, and persisted in carrying his weapons. 
Fortunately the show went oflf all right, and Cameron 
understood that he was free to start, but Alvez, who 
was a shifty customer, vowed that, according to certain 
promises, he must build a house for Kasongo, and 
Cameron must also build one I 

It was only an instance of the numerous delays, and 
Cameron had to submit with the best spirit possible, 
and went on to Tot^la, where the buildings were to be 
erected. Two months were wasted in this way, although 
Cameron utilised the time in gathering information. 
Kasongo, in the meantime, was out on occasional 
plundering expeditions, and poor Cameron, fuming with 
rage, had to kick up his heels and await the pleasure 
of the mountebank chief I 

And, as if to make matters worse, his camp was 
burnt out, and it was only by the merest luck that his 
books, etc., were saved, mostly through the exertions 
of Juniah Merikani ; while it cost him a good deal to 
recompense the natives whose huts were involved in 
the conflagration, caused by the carelessness of one of 
his men. 

But at last the time arrived when Cameron could 
start. It was June loth. A rare gem of an expedition 
that was ! Alvez had the toughest lot of customers in 
his caravan it was possible to get together — armed 
natives, who were horribly cruel, and bent on plunder 
wherever it was to be had ; slaves chained together and 
carrying the loads, for Alvez was a dealer in human 
goods as well as ivory and so on. So dreadful a name 
had Alvez got that the inhabitants of the villages on 
the route fled before his approach, carrying ofJ every- 



156 The Boy's Book of Pioneers 

thing they could to save it from the marauders. 
Cameron remonstrated, but what was the good? He 
was entirely in the hands of the trader, and he knew it. 
His efforts, therefore, were mostly confined to restrain- 
ing his own men from joining the murderous crew in 
their forays. 

The story of the next month was one of hard travel- 
ling through swamps, jungle, across rivers and over 
hills; it was also a story of the usual delays caused by 
Alvez, who knew that the longer he took on the journey 
the more money he would make out of Cameron; he 
would not be hustled when it was possible, on any 
pretence, to dally. 

One day the caravan was joined by Comibra, a 
trader and an "unmitigated ruffian," as Cameron called 
him. He turned up at the camp with no fewer than 
fifty-two women slaves, roped together in lots ! He 
had raided numerous villages to get these, and in the 
doing had probably ruined hundreds of homes. 

Accompanied by these additions, the caravan moved 
forward, and after a trying march, during which 
Cameron often had a fracas with Alvez, arrived in the 
country of Ulunda on July 27th. Ulunda was, for the 
most part, primeval forest, and there was plenty of big 
game to be had. Here, at one place, Alvez insisted on 
going in a different direction from that agreed upon, 
and although Cameron tried to make him go the right 
way, even going on alone for some distance, in the end 
it was necessary to return and follow the ruffianly Alvez 
whither he led, which meant more delay. 

The new direction meant going S.S.E. instead of 
W.S.W., toward Bihe, the intended destination, and 
had Cameron's followers been bold enough, he would 
have thrown off Alvez altogether and ventured without 
him, but the explorer's men were not the pluckiest. 

In the journey through Ulunda many rivers running 



Man who Walked Across Africa 157 

into the great Zambezi were passed, and at one place 
Cameron saw the jungle-fringed bank of that river. 

The continual delays were getting very serious, for 
Cameron's store of trade goods was sinking very low, 
and without these it was impossible to obtain food, 
which was also getting very short, and to worsen 
matters, Comibra the Rogue plotted to rob him of some 
viongwa — the last valuables he had. Cameron only had 
two; the plotters thought he had more, and when they 
learnt this fact the plot fell through. Then the con- 
spirators had the sauce to go to Cameron and demand 
compensation for being done out of the beads they had 
paid one of his own men, who had misinformed them 
of the amount to be had, and also for the fish they could 
have bought with the stolen goods 1 

To save the man who had been bribed into the con- 
spiracy, Cameron had to pay up I And, having nothing 
himself to pay with, he had to borrow from Alvez I 

And, hardest blow of all, later on, owing to trouble 
with a native chief, Cameron, to make peace, had to 
present him with the one remaining viongwa, which left 
him with nothing to trade, a small stock of flour for his 
private use, sufficient to last about three days, while his 
men were in pretty much the same situation. Fortunately, 
the next day a caravan from Bih^ came alon^ on a 
beeswax-buying expedition, and Cameron prevailed 
upon Alvez to lend him some with which to purchase 
cloth, valuable to obtain food with. 

So Cameron journeyed : always at loggerheads with 
Alvez, always hungry, always delayed, and now, when 
nearing Bih6, hearing that the road to the coast was 
frightfully dangerous owing to the unrest amongst the 
natives. A pretty prospect I Fortunately, the reports 
proved unfounded, although there were sufficient 
dangers to encounter. 

An interesting thing happened one day, which shows 



158 The Boy's Book of Pioneers 

how the people of the country regarded this lone 
Englishman and his venture. Cameron met a caravan, 
in charge of a slave who spoke Portuguese, and the 
latter asked him what he was in Africa for. 

"Are you trading in ivory?" he said. 

"No," Cameron answered. 

"In slaves?" 

"No." 

"In wax?" 

"No." 

"India-rubber?" 

"No," said Cameron again. 

"Then what the devil do you do?" exclaimed the 
slave in astonishment. 

"I'm out collecting information about the country," 
was the solemn reply, "and the native looked at me," 
said Cameron, "as if fully convinced that I was a 
lunatic, and then went on his way in amazement." 

When they were within a few marches of Bihe 
Alvez sent some of his people forward to bring back 
cloth to pay for the ferry across the Kawnza River, and 
Cameron dispatched the carriers with letters and maps, 
hoping that they might reach the coast before him. 

The Kawnza was reached on September 30th, and 
Alvez's men came back with the required cloth, and on 
October 3rd they were at Alvez's settlement at Bih6, 
where Cameron spent a week, buying provisiojns and 
cloth (in a roundabout way, via Alvez, who put a tall 
price upon his goods, vowing that it was impossible 
for Cameron to get credit, which was a lie). However, 
cloth was very necessary, for the explorer's men were 
practically unclothed. 

Eventually, after great trouble in procuring a guide, 
he started for the coast on October loth, paid a visit to 
the chief of Bih^, in whose presence he dared to sit 
(a thing unheard of before), dropped in at the settle- 



Man who Walked Across Africa 159 

ment of a Portuguese gentleman named Goncalves, who 
received him charmingly, and in whose house, for the 
first time since leaving the east coast, he slept between 
sheets. 

Then in real earnest he headed for the coast, accom- 
panied by some Bailunda natives, who were carrying 
goods for Alvez, and whose headman was the guide. 
This last stage of the journey was frightful in the 
extreme : food was scarce, Cameron's clothes were 
ragged, the rains set in and made going hard, natives 
were unfriendly, the rivers were swollen and difficult 
to cross, the guide deserted and a new one had to be 
procured. Cameron's postmen, sent on in advance with 
his papers, got horribly drunk, and dallied about so 
that he was actually able to send men to fetch the papers 
back, knowing very well they would be lost if left to the 
natives. 

He visited King Kongo of Bailunda at Kambala, 
who was drunk when he received his white visitor, but 
whose officials took care to get tribute in his name. 

After this, everything seemed favourable for pressing 
forward, but it was only "seeming," for the way was 
hard : hills had to be climbed, and the bearers were dead 
beat, the rains were heavy, and food grew shorter every 
day. Time was lost searching for a man who strayed, 
and every day's delay meant likely disaster; another 
man died, other pagazi said they could go no farther, 
and, indeed, nearly all of them seemed to be in a bad 
way — "swelled legs, stiff necks, aching backs, and 
empty stomachs being the universal cry." 

Matters had come to a pretty pass. Here he was, 
within fair distance (a hundred and twenty-six miles) 
of the coast, and yet failure stared him in the face. 
Cameron sat down for a smoke and a "think." "It 
came to this," he wrote, "throw away tent, boat (it was 
an india-rubber collapsible boat, which had proved very 



i6o The Boy's Book of Pioneers 

useful on occasions), and everything but instruments, 
journals and books, and then, taking a few picked men, 
make a forced march to the coast, sending thence assist- 
ance to the main body ; and this was no sooner decided 
than acted upon, for no time was to be lost." 

So, leaving all his men but five, Cameron and the 
Bailunda (who said they could go at any pace) set off. 
Cameron had just the things he stood up in, a spare 
shirt, a blanket, slippers, his instruments, and a few 
other things, making a load of about twenty pounds, 
and his food consisted of half a fowl, a little flour, and 
the last couple of yards of cloth. 

At a rattling pace the little party set out, but very 
soon the Bailunda gave in, despite their boasting, and 
progress was slower. They camped that first day nearly 
six thousand feet above the sea level, which indicated 
the character of the road, and next day they went higher 
still. Later on they descended, only to have to climb 
range after range, crossing many rivers as well, and 
having trouble with some of the many caravans from the 
coast. It was only the indomitable spirit of the man 
that kept him going now, for he was almost exhausted, 
and had wasted away till he was little more than skin 
and bone. At last his perseverance was rewarded, for, 
pressing on with his forced march, he stood on the 
summit of a ridge of hills and saw a "distant line upon 
the sky." 

It was the sea I The sea he had been striving to 
reach for many weary months. 

"There was little ' go ' left in me now," he wrote. 
"I was very nearly broken down, for though my head 
and legs had ceased to ache so acutely, I was suffering 
excruciating pains in my back. 

"At almost every step I feared I should be com- 
pelled to lie down and wait for some assistance from 
the coast, but I thought of the poor exhausted fellows 



Man who Walked Across Africa i6i 

behind who were trusting to me to send them aid, and 
being sustained by the near approach of the end of my 
journey I still managed to keep my legs." 

The rest of that day was spent in "crawling over 
rocks and dragging through pools waist deep, dammed 
up in hollows since the last rains, and now slimy and 
stagnant," until the men could not go any farther. Two, 
the only capable ones in the whole party, were 
dispatched to Katombdla to fetch help, but next morn- 
ing a fresh move was made onward, until they almost 
reached the summit of the last range. Then they met 
one of their messengers, returning with food ! 

Never was man welcomed so enthusiastically ! He 
brought, besides something for supper, a note from a 
trader at Katomb^la, who had sent the provisions, and 
next morning the refreshed men were up and away 
early. When they came within sight of Katomb^la 
Cameron was met by a Frenchman, who gave him a 
hearty welcome and installed him in his own house. 

But Cameron's troubles were not at an end even yet : 
he was as ill as he could be with scurvy, and the French- 
man had him carried off in the dead of night to Ben- 
guela for medical assistance. He lay at Benguela for 
some days, almost at the point of death : a little longer 
on the road and he would have died, so they told him. 
Eventually all his men were brought into the place, and 
Cameron, on his recovery, had the satisfaction of know- 
ing that the task he had put his hand to was completed ; 
he had walked from one side of Africa to the other, 
through a terra incognita, filled with dangers, and had 
gathered an amazing amount of information regarding 
the 'heart of the great continent. Three thousand miles 
had he walked in two years and eight months — a 
marvellous feat, and one which entitled him to a place 
amongst the pioneers of civilisation. 



STANLEY'S CONGO JOURNEY 

The Greatest Work of the Man who Found Livingstone 

WHEN Stanley left Livingstone, the missionary- 
explorer, as we have seen, was bent on proving 
a theory he held regarding the Lualaba being the 
fountain head of the Nile; and when the news reached 
the civilised world that Livingstone had died without 
having accomplished his task, the London Daily Tele- 
graph and the New York Herald placed Henry Morton 
Stanley at the head of an expedition to carry the work 
to a completion. 

The lure of Africa had gripped Stanley, who entered 
upon his task with great keenness, and on August 15, 
1874, he left England, in company with Frederick 
Barber, Frank John Pocock and his brother, Edward 
Pocock. On February 27, 1875, he was at Kagehi, at 
the south of the Victoria Nyanza Lake (having lost 
Edward Pocock through typhus on the way). There is 
no space to tell of the journey from Zanzibar to the lake ; 
and little need, for it was, more or less, over ground 
which we have already covered {vide Cameron), and it 
is from this point that Stanley broke entirely fresh 
ground. 

His first object was to explore the lake itself, for 
which purpose he had brought out in sections a boat 
named the Lady Alice, and this he put together ready 
for the time when he would be able to leave Kagehi. 
Kaduma, the chief of the district, was of the M'tesa ilk; 
he did not see the force of allowing the white men to 
do just as they liked, and put all sorts of obstacles in 

162 



Stanley's Congo Journey 163 

their w^y. Stanley wanted a camp site; Kaduma re- 
fused it. Stanley coaxed, and got no satisfactory 
answer; threatened, and eventually won. Then Stanley 
wanted help to get things ready for the trip round the 
lake; again Kaduma was obstinate, and again, by dint 
of patience, tact, and so on, Stanley won. 

Tnen, when all was ready, Stanley embarked on the 
Lady Alice, with eleven natives. He left his white 
friends at Kagehi, under the protection of Kaduma and 
an Arab trader named Sungoro ; and when it is remem- 
bered that the lake had an area (exclusive of islands, 
estimated at 14,000 square miles) of nearly 28,000 
square miles, it will be seen that it was a tremendous 
task that the lonely explorer had set himself. 

It was a voyage full of incident. The Victoria 
Nyanza has gales which test the build of a boat, and 
they seem to spring up with most annoying suddenness; 
the natives along the shores were not all friendly, and 
as the native boatmen in the Lady Alice, following their 
country's custom, hugged the shores to avoid crossing 
the large bays around the lake, across which the gales 
blow and send great waves roaring, Stanley on more 
than one occasion had narrow escapes from disaster. 

It took him a month to skirt along the eastern and 
northern shores, during which time he made many 
observations which were valuable additions to scientific 
knowledge of Central Africa. 

Day after day some new kind of scenery burst upon 
his view. One day the shore v.as rocky, at another time 
it was low and barren, while yet again the jungle fringed 
the water's edge. Luxuriant tropical islands dotted the 
surface; native villages dotted the shore of the lake; 
crocodiles and hippopotami were abundant; there were 
plenty of fish in the water, and the flora of the country 
was very varied — mimosas, euphorbias, lianas, water- 
cane, wild pineapple, and many other remarkable trees. 



i64 The Boy's Book of Pioneers 

The explorer was an object of much curiosity on the 
part of the natives, who, when they did not attack him, 
or refuse to deal with him, found much to laugh at. 
Always he had to be on his guard against being de- 
ceived — the cunning African native needed watching 
every minute. 

It was on April 5 that the white man stepped ashore 
at Usavara, the port of Rubaga, in Uganda, where he 
found that King M'tesa had sent a guard of honour to 
meet him and escort him to court. M'tesa, Stanley 
found, was "a powerful emperor, with great influence 
over his neighbours." We have already seen, in the 
chapter on Speke's exploration, that the King of Uganda 
considered himself to be a mighty man, and here 
Stanley adduced proof that the claim was not without 
foundation. 

"I have to-day," he wrote, "seen the turbulent Man- 
koronga. King of Usui and Jiambo, that terrible phan- 
tom who disturbs men's minds in Unyamwezi, through 
their emissaries kneeling and tendering tribute to him 
(M'tesa). I saw over 3,000 soldiers of M'tesa's nearly 
civilised. I saw about 100 chiefs, who might be classed 
in the same scale as the men of Zanzibar and Oman, 
clad in as rich robes and armed in the same fashion, 
and I have witnessed with astonishment such order and 
law as is obtainable in semi-civilised countries. All this 
is the result of a poor Muslim's labours; his name is 
Muley bin Salim. He it was who first began teaching 
here the doctrines of Islam. These doctrines are pre- 
ferable to the ruthless instincts of a savage despot, 
whom Speke and Grant left wallowing in the blood of 
women, and I honour the memory of Muley bin Salim — 
Muslim and slave-trader though he be — the poor priest 
who has wrought this happy change. With a strong 
desire to improve still more the character of M'tesa in 
building on the foundation stones laid by Muley bin 



Stanley's Congo Journey 165 

Salim, I shall destroy his belief in Islam and teach the 
doctrines of Jesus of Nazareth." 

M'tesa was, as Stanley indicates, a man open to be 
educated; and the explorer found him willing to listen 
to the story of Christianity, which he also had told to 
him shortly afterwards by M. Linant de Belief onds Bey, 
a Protestant who had been sent by Gordon Pasha from 
Gondokoro as an emissary to M'tesa, and arrived at 
court while Stanley was there. 

Linant, when he went back, carried with him in his 
top boot, a letter from Stanley making an appeal to 
England to send missionaries to Uganda, and although 
Linant never reached Bari, that letter reached England. 
Linant was attacked by the Bari people at Laboreh and 
killed, but the letter was found, and taken to General 
Gordon, who sent it to England. 

After a sojourn with M'tesa, Stanley began to 
descend the western shore of the lake; saw the naval 
depot of the Waganda; it was on the Sesse Islands, 
and had shipbuilding yards; discovered the Katonga 
River, a slow-moving stream which emptied its waters 
into the lake ; while farther south the Kagera River was 
also discovered. It formed the boundary between 
Uganda proper and Karagwe and Usongora. 

On the island of Bumbireh occurred a thrilling 
incident, which nearly resulted in Stanley being killed 
by unfriendly natives. When the white man and his 
tiny escort appeared, they were received kindly, but 
beneath the veneer of the natives was a craftiness which 
showed itself when, without the least warning, they 
swooped down on the boat, seized it, and dragged it up 
on the beach. 

And then hundreds of war-whooping savages sur- 
rounded the boat, and possibly because of their very 
fury did not do any harm. Stanley, when he saw the 
crowding natives, armed with bows and arrows, terrible- 



i66 The Boy's Book of Pioneers 

looking spears and weighty and knobby clubs, wondered 
what the end would be. He doubted the attitude of his 
Zanzibar followers, who might well have been excused 
for showing the white feather in such circumstances, 
what with the threatenings of the natives, the yells, and 
the brandishing of weapons. But the explorer's men 
did not seem to turn a hair, and the boldness of Stanley, 
who took good care to keep his gun in evidence, gave 
the savages pause ; they retired to hold a council of 
war. 

This was Stanley's opportunity. He had, while they 
were surging round him, attempted to come to peaceful 
terms, and failed. He decided now to make a dash for 
it. A sharp order, a rush to the boat, a pushing and 
pulling in feverish haste, and the boat was on the way 
to the water again. Behind the toilers at the boat stood 
Stanley with his gun, ready; coming towards him were 
the infuriated natives, who realised that their victims 
might even now escape them. They yelled, danced in 
fury, shook their spears, gesticulated, and yet kept off, 
held back by the sight of the firestick. 

The boat was launched, the Zanzibar men flung 
themselves in, followed by Stanley. Then they found 
that in the first scrimmage the oars had been lost. On 
shore the hostile natives fitted arrows into bows, dashed, 
some of them, down to the water; and the boat lay quite 
still upon the lake ! Stanley rose to the occasion ; he 
had the bottom boards of the boat pulled up and used as 
paddles, and working them for all they were worth 
while their leader kept his gun trained on the savages, 
the party managed to escape, and after having been all 
round the lake, arrived back at Kagehi on May 6. 

Here Stanley found that six of his men had died, 
besides Barker, who had been a valuable member of the 
expedition. 

He did not stay long at Kagehi. M'tesa wanted him 



Stanley's Congo Journey 167 

back at Uganda, and sent a number of canoes to take 
him there. The party paddled up the lake as far as 
the island of Mahyiga, and there envoys from Iroba 
came, and brought news that the King of Bumbireh 
would not permit the white men to pass or continue on 
their journey. 

This was not according to Stanley's liking; he 
promptly went over to Iroba, took captive the king 
and a couple of chiefs, whom he kept as hostages for 
the capture of the son of the King of Bumbireh. 

Bold methods, Stanley had realised, were necessary 
if he was to make any headway and to uphold the 
dignity of the white man in the Dark Continent; and 
so effectual were his methods that the Iroba folk caught 
the Prince of Bumbireh. The result was not exactly as 
Stanley had expected, however; true, the King of Bum- 
bireh hurriedly dispatched envoys, who said that their 
master was willing to make peace, but when a party of 
Waganda, sent by Stanley, arrived at the island, they 
had barely touched land when the Bumbirehans fell 
upon them and caused several casualties. 

Stanley was wroth ; he had had enough of the King 
of Bumbireh and his treachery. He decided that he 
would fight a way past the island. The Waganda 
canoes formed a fairly large fleet, with which the ex- 
plorer swept up towards Bumbireh, and there found the 
island lined by about three thousand warriors in all 
the glory of their war-paint. 

Stanley offered peace first, but when this was re- 
fused, he handled his primitive fleet like an admiral of 
the line, worked in to within fifty yards of the shore, 
anchored broadside on, and let fly at the foe with such 
good effect that after about an hour the fight was over, 
and the enemy had fled inland. 

Thus did Stanley get past Bumbireh, arriving at 
Jinja, near the Ripon Falls, on October 23, where he 



i68 The Boy's Book of Pioneers 

found M'tesa in camp, engaged in a campaign against 
the Wavuma. His black majesty had with him an 
army of some 150,000 men, his navy consisted of 325 
boats; and Stanley was highly interested in the methods 
of fighting. 

He saw those 325 canoes, some of them 72 feet long, 
carrying nearly a hundred men, exclusive of their crews, 
while others were 50 feet long, and a third type from 
18 to 30 feet in length. Stanley saw the whole fleet in 
close formation speeding towards the island of the 
Wavuma, who sent a hundred canoes to meet their foes. 
Good strategy was displayed by the Wavuma : they 
opened out their line and allowed the Waganda to pass 
through along the channel, and the Waganda imagined 
that this was a sign of weakness. They yelled joyfully 
at having obtained so easy a victory, but the next 
moment "the Wavuma paddles were seen to strike the 
water with foam, and lo ! in the midst of the mass from 
either flank the gallant islanders dashed, sending dis- 
may and consternation into the whole Uganda army." 

M'tesa's fleet was defeated that day, and lost several 
canoes, and had to retire. The king offered a reason 
for this : he told Stanley that the soldiers who were in 
his canoes were men from an inland district and afraid 
of the water because they could not swim, and he ended 
by saying : " It is my opinion that we must be clever 
and make headwork take that island." 

What scheme M'tesa had in his mind it is not 
known, but Stanley had an idea, and, being friendly 
with M'tesa, was quite willing to assist him in any way 
possible. He advised the king to get everybody in his 
camp — there were, besides his army, about a hundred 
thousand camp followers ! — to throw stones into the 
water, and so fill up the channel leading to the Wavuma 
island, by which means it would be possible for the 
army to march across. 



Stanley's Congo Journey 169 

M'tesa was mightily pleased with the suggestion, 
and the Waganda were soon hard at it, carrying their 
stones to the water and pitching them in, till half-way 
across the channel was thus treated, and then M'tesa 
began to lose patience, and sent his navy into battle 
again. 

Four times the canoes headed for the island; four 
times they were met by the Wavuma, and four times 
they were defeated ! Poor M'tesa gathered together his 
witches and medicine men ; but not all their incantations 
and invocations would bring victory ; and the war looked 
like dragging on, much to the annoyance of Stanley, 
who didn't want to hang about Uganda for ever. 

He devised a new kind of fighting machine for 
M'tesa, which he hoped would end the war. Three of 
the biggest canoes, each about seventy feet long, were 
laid parallel upon the shore, and on them Stanley built 
a platform round which a wicker-work wall was made ; 
the wall was seven feet high, and on top of it floated a 
number of flags, while inside the queer-looking engine 
of war were a hundred and fifty musketeers — unseen. 

Over the water, when everything was ready, went the 
"battleship," propelled by the paddles of sixty invisible 
paddlers, and so fearsome a looking thing was it to the 
superstitious Wavuma that when it arrived close to their 
shore, and a voice called out on them to surrender, they 
went down on their knees and cried : 

"Enough ! Let M'tesa be satisfied ! " 

Thus ended the war. 

Having helped the Waganda in their quarrels, 
Stanley set about helping them in other directions. He 
instituted himself as the religious instructor of M'tesa, 
who finally embraced Christianity and promised to do 
all in his power to get his people to accept the new re- 
ligion, and when Stanley left to explore the Albert 
Nyanza Lake, M'tesa said to him : 



170 The Boy's Book of Pioneers 

"Stanley, say to the white people when you write 
to them that I am like a man sitting in darkness, or 
born blind, and that all I ask is that I may be taught 
how to see, and I shall continue a Christian while I 
live." 

If only for his influence upon M'tesa, and for being 
the messenger of the King, Stanley was a pioneer in 
the truest sense of the word. 

But he was to do many more things than these. 
He went out seeking the Albert Nyanza, in order to 
explore it, but Sambuzi, one of the feudal chiefs sent 
with him, was a troublesome customer, and utterly 
spoiled the expedition. However, the great Gambara- 
gara Mountain was discovered, and a lake, which he 
then imagined was the Albert Nyanza, was reached, 
where the natives were hostile. Sambuzi and his fellow- 
chiefs proved such cowards that Stanley could not 
explore the lake as he wished to do. Actually the lake 
was not the Albert Nyanza, and many years later 
Stanley visited it again, and named it the Albert Edward 
Nyanza; he then discovered that it was connected with 
the Albert Lake by the River Semliki. 

When Stanley, from Kisossi, sent word to M'tesa, 
telling him of the failure of his expedition, and the 
reason, the king was angry, and offered another escort, 
but the explorer refused it, and went south towards 
Ujiji, visiting Rumanika of Karagwe, running many 
risks, having various adventures, and making blood- 
brotherhood with Miramo on the way to the Arab 
trading-station on Lake Tanganyika. 

After a short stay in the town, Stanley, having 
borrowed a canoe from the Governor, set off in the 
Lady Alice to explore the whole of Lake Tanganyika. 
He spent fifty-one days in circumnavigating the lake, 
and discovered many valuable things about it. In mid- 
lake, he recorded, he could find no bottom with 1,280 



Stanley's Congo Journey 171 

feet of line ; the length of the lake was 329 geographical 
miles, its breadth varied from 10 to 45 miles, and its 
coast line he estimated at 930 miles. Many tribes lived 
on its shores, their villages in some cases being almost 
at the water's edge. Hippopotami and crocodiles, a 
large variety of aquatic birds, well-wooded islands, 
were found; some of the most beautiful scenery in the 
world was to be seen there too. 

The circumnavigation was attended by dangers, both 
from natives and the elements, for the surface of the 
lake was often swept by terrific squalls of wind which, 
so folk at Ujiji had told the explorer, would capsize the 
Lady Alice and put "done" to the expedition in no 
time ! However, Stanley arrived back at Ujiji safely, 
and then struck out on the last — and the most im- 
portant — stage of his great journey. 

He was going to trace the Lualaba, and clear up 
the mystery surrounding it. 

It was in August, 1876, that he left Ujiji, and in the 
following October had reached Mwana Mamba, near 
Nyangwe. There he met Tippoo Tib, the Arab who 
had accompanied Cameron across the Lualaba, and who 
now gave the explorer what information he could re- 
garding the river, which he asserted ran to the north. 

Actually Stanley did not know which way to go, 
and one evening he and Pocock, discussing the matter, 
tossed a rupee to decide what course to take. 

"Heads for the north and the Lualaba, tails for the 
south and Katanga," were the conditions. 

And tails won — six times. 

So the two men tried straws, which also decided 
against their going northwards. 

The two men looked at each other. 

"It's no use, Frank," said Stanley at last, "we'll 
face our destiny, despite the rupee and the straws. 
With your help, my dear fellow, we'll follow the river." 



172 The Boy's Book of Pioneers 

Fixing up an arrangement with Tippoo Tib for an 
escort for sixty days' journey, on October 24 the ex- 
plorers went forward to Nyangwe, which was reached 
and passed, and the way then lay through unexplored 
country. 

Out of a hundred and fifty-two men, Stanley could 
count on the loyalty of about forty, the others might 
at any moment take fright and desert; and the four 
hundred men which formed the escort under Tippoo 
Tib proved a pretty bad bargain for the explorer. In- 
cidentally Tippoo had told some fine tales to Stanley's 
men of ferocious beasts which infested the jungles or 
fierce natives who murdered for the very pleasure of 
doing so, and for the sake of the food they thus 
obtained I 

Stanley soon found that the Arab was not to be 
relied on. It was on November 16, eleven days after 
the expedition had left Nyangwe, and when the ex- 
plorers were in the very heart of a jungle which had 
necessitated hard work cutting a track through the dense 
vegetation, that Tippoo Tib approached Stanley, in- 
tending to break his contract; only by a firm attitude 
did the explorer succeed in keeping him and persuading 
him to let his men continue their difficult way through 
the forest. 

Yet all the time the Arab's men sowed the seeds of 
fear in the hearts of Stanley's men, who, to their credit, 
were quite willing to face anything they might meet, 
for they had a sublime faith in this white man who had 
dared all kinds of danger on the great lake, and who 
had won M'tesa's battles. 

When, by dint of herculean labours, the expedition 
reached Kampunzu, Stanley resolved to take to the 
river, which at that place was very wide. He divided 
his party into two groups : one, consisting of himself 
and thirty-eight of his men, embarked in the Lady Alice; 



Stanley's Congo Journey 173 

the other, composed of the remnant of the expedition 
and Tippoo's Tib*s men, worked along the bank. 

When Stanley decided to take this course he ran a 
great risk of smashing up his whole plan. For it must 
be remembered that these men of Africa knew nothing 
of the great river except that its banks were dotted 
with villages whose people were cannibals, according to 
Tippoo Tib, and that all kind of danger awaited them 
if they followed its course. On the way already th6y 
had had to fight for their road in many places, and 
they were weary with carrying their loads. What might 
not be before them in the days to come if they should 
venture into the unknown country? 

Stanley knew all this, and his psychological know- 
ledge of the native told him exactly what these men were 
thinking ; but he had made up his mind to go forward, 
and go forward he would. 

"To-day," he said to them, "I shall launch my boat 
on that stream, and it shall never leave it until I finish 
my work ! I swear it ! " 

Would they go with him ? 

Stanley waited for the answer, as Pizarro waited in 
the wilds of South America for his men to cross the line 
and to take up their stand with him. He had not long 
to wait, for almost at once thirty-eight of the natives 
offered themselves. 

"We are willing to come with you," was their 
answer; and, shamed by the bravery of these few men, 
the rest also took the same decision. 

Stanley was sure of a following. 

And he needed it. For that journey along the river 
was filled with strange adventures, many perils, narrow 
escapes from death and the cooking pot I There were 
trials in getting along at all sometimes; crocodiles 
barred the way ; when they landed again and marched, 
the forest was almost impenetrable ; natives died, so also 



174 The Boy's Book of Pioneers 

did two of the white men, before the sea was reached. 
A wonderful journey was this across Africa, and it is 
impossible to tell it here in detail. We will content 
ourselves with taking a few incidents which will show 
through what the explorer passed, wringing success 
through difficulties. 

Right at the beginning of the voyage down 
stream trouble began with the tribes; the expedition 
wanted food badly. Stanley's intention was to buy 
what was needed, but the natives refused to trade. 
Many times the explorers and their assistants went 
hungry because Stanley would not allow the men to 
commandeer food. Many fights had taken place with 
natives who sought to hold the expedition off, and 
matters became so serious that he had at last to permit 
his men to seize necessary food. It was a question of 
success or failure, and Stanley was determined to 
succeed. 

The needs of the party were fewer later on, when, 
at the end of the contract, Tippoo left, and the white 
explorers, with their comparatively few attendants, were 
faced with the prospect of a journey through Africa 
without adequate escort. Stanley managed to buy 
sufficient canoes to carry all his men, and in these they 
embarked and went down river. 

It would have been an enjoyable trip but for the 
hostility of the natives : they would line the banks, 
follow the canoes along the river, and shake their war 
spears at the travellers. Or, perhaps, they would 
hurry on ahead, where they knew there was a cataract, 
which would cause a certain amount of delay, through 
the canoes having to be portaged. 

There they would lie in ambush, and while Stan- 
ley's men were unloading the canoes, hauling them up 
on to the bank, and dragging them alongside the 
cataract, the natives, hidden amongst the trees, or 



Stanley's Congo Journey 175 

sheltered behind the rocks, would shower spears upon 
them. 

Stanley had a short way of coping with such 
rascals. His men were armed with muskets, and he 
would detail certain of them to act as guards while the 
rest laboured with the canoes. As soon as a black head 
showed itself, a bullet went surging for it, and now and 
again, at a sharp command, a volley would be fired, 
and perhaps the enemies would take to their heels. 

All this was very thrilling, but Stanley was anxious 
to push on, and it was no easy matter to portage canoes 
and goods round cataracts while a miniature battle was 
going on. 

Sometimes four cataracts a day had to be passed, 
and the natives were not the only troubles experienced 
during the work. At one place, typical of many, the 
rapids caught one of the canoes and swept it down 
towards the ledge ; the boatmen became panic-stricken, 
and in the confusion the canoe was upset, the men and 
the goods being scattered in the water. All but one 
man succeeded in swimming ashore, but the unfortunate 
exception clung desperately to the canoe, which was 
hurled by the force of the water against a sharp-pointed 
rock. The frail craft was split into two and jammed 
between two points of the rock : here, in fear and 
danger of his life, the man hung, while every effort 
was made to rescue him. 

A canoe, to which ropes were attached and held on 
to by men ashore, was sent out to him, two men pad- 
dling carefully, but just as they reached the rock the 
cables broke, and the men only managed to save them- 
selves by leaping on to the rock, where the three men 
now clung, all through that night, waiting for morning 
and further attempts at rescue. 

Eventually, by means of another canoe and stronger 
cables, all three were brought to land. 



176 The Boy's Book of Pioneers 

These dangers were typical of the trials experienced 
by the expedition. Every day seemed to bring some 
new trouble, some cause of delay, some narrow escape 
from peril. 

In due course Stanley discovered the great falls 
which are named after him. These falls are amongst 
the most remarkable in Africa, as Stanley's description 
of one of them, the seventh cataract, shows : 

"The Livingstone, from the right bank across the 
island to the left bank, is about 1,300 yards broad, of 
which width 40 yards is occupied by the right branch, 
760 yards by the island of the Wenya, 500 yards by 
the great river. Contracted to this narrow space between 
the rocky and perpendicular bluffs of the island and 
the steep banks opposite, the uproar, as may be 
imagined, is very great. As the calm river, which is 
1,300 yards wide one mile above the falls, becomes 
narrowed, the current quickens and rushes with re- 
sistless speed for a few hundred yards, and then falls 
about ten feet into a boiling and tumultuous gulf, 
wherein are lines of brown waves six feet high, leaping 
with terrific bounds, and hurling themselves against 
each other in dreadful fury. Until I realised the extent 
of the volume here precipitated, I could hardly believe 
that it was indeed a vast river that was passing before 
me through the narrowed channel. I have seen many 
waterfalls during my travels in various parts of the 
world, but here was a stupendous river flung in full 
volume over a waterfall only 500 yards across. The 
Ripon Falls at the Victoria Lake outlet compared to 
this swift descent and furious onrush were languid. . . . 
The Livingstone, with over ten times the volume of the 
Victoria Nile, though only occupying the same breadth 
of bed, conveys to the sense the character of irresistible 
force and unites great depth with a tumultuous rush." 
The journey past the Stanley Falls was a long and 



Stanley's Congo Journey 177 

arduous one : twenty-two days were occupied in it, and 
both night and day the party had to be on the look out 
because of the hostility of the natives, who had to be 
driven off by the fire of the traveller. 

The expedition arrived at the confluence of the river 
Arnwheim on February i, after a terrible journey, and 
found awaiting them a naval and military array of 
natives, who disputed their passage. 

The river was two thousand yards wide here, and 
the fleet of canoes which came against the travellers 
immeasurable; it was the most formidable force of 
natives that Stanley had yet been opposed by, and the 
war canoes were large and well manned. 

It seemed a sorry plight; the foes came on to the 
sound of blowing of horns. Stanley realised that it 
was a case of fighting to the very death, and that the 
force opposing him was not to be despised. It called 
for masterly handling of his men, and Stanley kept 
them well in hand. 

As the enemy canoes came sweeping down, Stanley 
anchored his own boats, and formed a line of eleven 
double canoes ten yards apart. 

And, in this disposition, waited for the foes. 

They came, fifty-four huge canoes, each propelled 
by eighty paddlers and having in their bows ten prime 
young warriors, "who appeared to be chiefs. The 
crashing sound of large drums, a hundred blasts from 
ivory horns, and a thrilling chant from two thousand 
human throats do not tend to soothe our nerves or to 
increase our confidence. However, it is ' neck or 
nothing ' ; we have no time to pray or to take senti- 
mental looks at the savage world, or even to breathe a 
sad farewell to it, so many other things have to be done 
speedily and well." 

The fight began as the canoes came nearer; Stanley 
gave a sharp command, and a volley of musketry rang 



178 The Boy's Book of Pioneers 

out. The paddlers in the canoes dropped their paddles, 
the warriors toppled back into the canoes; pande- 
monium reigned. Yet, despite the fact of their friends 
being wounded and killed, the rest of the natives pressed 
forward, and the fight went on until the enemy saw 
they could not prevail against the fire-shooting sticks of 
the white men and their followers. 

The natives turned, and fled upstream; after them 
went Stanley and his men, chasing them to their land- 
ing place, and, when the men took to land, hurried 
after them into their village. No mercy was the ex- 
plorer giving for the unprovoked hostility; he had 
suffered enough, and for weeks had been dreading the 
very sight of a human being I 

He chased the foe right through their own village 
into the jungle, giving them no respite until he had sent 
them scurrying into the recesses of their forests. 

Then, after paying a less martial visit to the deserted 
village, he pursued his journey along the great river, 
passing Upoto and the confluence of the M'bange and 
Congo, and arriving at Nzabi, past Chumbri, near the 
junction of the Sankuru and the great river — a long 
stage on the road to the coast, during which the experi- 
ences of previous days were often repeated. 

In the Mowa country, when the natives hurried up 
armed to the teeth, Stanley met them courageously in 
an attempt to damp their martial ardour. , 

"Why should we fight," he asked; "are we not 
friends?" 

And the answer was that they had a great grievance 
against him for having made "medicine." He had 
been making "tara-tara" upon paper, referring to his 
constant jottings in his notebook. The mystery was 
elucidated when they said that this would bring disaster 
upon them — cause their bananas to rot, their goats to 
die, and bring their country into waste. 



Stanley's Congo Journey 179 

The explorer had to listen to them, not without a 
certain amusement, while they dilated upon his crime, 
which, to their mind, was aggravated by the fact that 
they had before been quite friendly, having sold him 
food and drink. 

It was a case of having returned evil for good I 

"Burn your tara-tara," they told him, "or fight I " 

Stanley was in a dilemma. These ignorant people, 
on whose cordiality depended safe journey through their 
country, demanded the destruction of his most valuable 
notes ! What was to be done ? 

He gained a little time by tactful handling, went 
into his hut, and thought the matter out. 

Presently he appeared with a book, which he held 
before the waiting natives, and asked them if that was 
the thing they wanted him to burn. 

"Yes," they told him, and he offered it to them to 
destroy, but none of them would touch the "accursed" 
thing. 

Stanley therefore pitched it upon the fire, where it 
burnt merrily — a volume of Shakespeare, which was 
very similar to his notebook 1 

And peace was established. 

While amongst the Mowa Stanley had to build for 
his party new canoes, and, for this purpose, the forests 
around Nzabi were searched for trees. One of these was 
a gigantic gum frankincense tree, with a branchless 
trunk of forty feet long and ten feet round the waist; 
it made a rattling fine canoe after the men had 
laboured at it for eight days; and the second craft was 
turned out of a fifty-five feet trunk. 

It was on March 12 that Stanley discovered the 
Dover Cliffs and the pool named after him, and from 
that point the journey was made more difficult by the 
number of cataracts, which again rendered portages 
necessary. At one of these cataracts, the Crocodile, a 



i8o The Boy's Book of Pioneers 

canoe was swept over and Kalulu, Stanley's favourite 
boy, and five other men were drowned. 

But all these troubles were as nothing compared with 
what awaited them at the Inkisi, or Charm, Falls, just 
over 200 miles from the mouth of the river. Here the 
river had closed into a width of only 500 yards — little 
more than a rocky chasm, with the water rushing along 
madly. With a thunderous roar it fell over the ledge, 
and the bed was for two miles a cauldron of seething 
water, with ridges of rock hidden beneath, a formidable 
obstacle 1 To go down by the river was impossible : a 
portage was necessary. 

And what a portage ! The only path lay over a 
hill 1,200 feet high, and the canoes, weighing over 
three tons, were the greatest trouble. Stanley hired 600 
natives to help in the work of getting the craft up and 
over the mountain, and then, before the river could be 
reached again, three miles of ground had to be covered. 
The long line of natives toiled at their work, hauling 
the canoes, and at last Stanley had the satisfaction of 
knowing that the most difficult portage on the journey 
had been accomplished. 

Embarking again on the river, the expedition went 
on until they reached the Zenga Falls, where Frank 
Pocock met his death in a tragic manner. 

While Stanley was seeking a camp, Pocock, who, 
apparently, was getting sore at the constant delays — 
he was suffering badly from ulcerated legs — urged his 
men to shoot the rapids at once. The men were re- 
luctant to attempt what was obviously a dangerous task, 
but Pocock jeered at their cowardice, and the men, 
claiming that they were not afraid to die, pushed off. 

And, caught by the current, their canoe was carried 
broadside on over the cataract, and the passengers 
were dumped into the whirling waters below, where 
three, including Pocock, were drowned. 



Stanley's Congo Journey i8i 

This fatal accident was a grievous blow to Stanley, 
for Pocock was the last of the white friends who had 
set out with him, and the explorer was terribly down- 
cast. But the work remained to be finished, and there 
was little time for grief. He must go on — a solitary 
white man surrounded by natives. 

About two months after Pocock had met his death 
Stanley took to land, to complete the journey on foot. 
He left the Lady Alice, which had come 7,000 miles, at 
the Isangula Cataract, and then struck off down country. 

It was a strange caravan that turned out ; a caravan 
of sick men — forty were on the sick list even at that 
time — without adequate provisions, and the natives 
would not sell or give any. For several days the 
famished travellers held on, but eventually had to call 
a halt; they could go no farther without food. 

This halt was made at Nsanda. Stanley knew that 
he was at the point where success might be turned to 
failure; a few more marches and the sea would be 
reached ; too long delay would spell disaster. 

And yet the natives would sell no food ; all they did 
was to cry out for rum ! But the travellers had not 
sufficient rum to satisfy the avaricious natives, who 
were so callous that they refused to sell anything at all 
to the starving men until the proper market day came 
round. 

Stanley's difficulties were immense, his men 
clamoured for food, and no food was obtainable, al- 
though there was plenty in evidence. They threatened 
to seize what they wanted, and Stanley had a serious 
task to prevent their doing so. He realised that the 
least sign of raiding or stealing by his men would bring 
the warriors upon them, and the travellers were too 
weak to fight and had insufficient ammunition, while 
the natives were in overwhelming numbers. 

Stanley knew, however, that unless assistance were 



i82 The Boy's Book of Pioneers 

procured he could not hope to keep his men in hand; 
he therefore dispatched four of his most trusted fol- 
lowers on a forced march to Boma, where he gathered 
there were European factories. With two guides, who 
had been obtained only by much difficulty, these men 
set out, hungry and travel-weary, on a journey which 
was to tax them to their utmost. Anxiously Stanley 
awaited their return, and on August 6 his eyes were 
gladdened by the sight of his faithful followers coming 
in company with a small caravan which the Europeans 
at Boma had hurriedly dispatched. The food they 
brought was like the food of the gods to the travellers, 
and Stanley had the gratification of knowing that the 
men who had followed him so faithfully across Africa 
were not doomed to die of starvation in a land of plenty ; 
and those men had a fine appreciation, in their uncouth 
way, of the white man who had thus brought them 
through danger of every kind to the end of their journey, 
for within a day or so of that on which the food supplies 
had come up the expedition was at the mouth of the 
Congo, having cut right through the heart of Africa. 
Losses there had been. How could it have been other- 
wise in face of all the peril? Over 170 had been lost 
on the road, 14 being drowned, 58 being killed in battle 
with the hostile natives, the rest having died through 
the climatic conditions. 

On August 12 Stanley embarked with his men on 
the English ship Kabinda, which was lying in the river 
mouth, and went round the Cape to Zanzibar, which was 
reached on November 26, 1877. 

And what of the results of this great venture which 
had been carried through so successfully ? 

The Congo had for centuries — ever since the Portu- 
guese discovered its mouth in the fifteenth century — 
been a matter of speculation ; where did it rise ? what 
was its course ? what sort of country did it run through ? 



Stanley's Congo Journey 183 

When Stanley came back to civilisation he brought with 
him answers to most of the questions; he had mapped 
hitherto unknown spaces of Africa, and the immediate 
result was that the European Powers began to compete 
for territory or trade, and out of that competition came 
the opening up of Africa, in a way, and with results, 
such as had never been thought of. 

Of the Congo itself it may be said that it drains 
over 1,600,000 square miles, inhabited by many millions 
of people. "Its head stream rises some 420 miles in a 
direct line from the Indian Ocean, at a height of nearly 
6,000 feet. These streamlets flow into Lake Bangweole, 
or Bemba, upon the southern shores of which Living- 
stone died. . . . Leaving it, the river flows to the 
north of Luapala, and enters Lake Moero, situated at 
an altitude of about 3,400 feet, and bidding farewell to 
Mpweto, where Livingstone saw the river in March, 
1868, it flows on to the Kualaba, receiving in its course 
the periodical and intermittent overflow from Lake 
Tanganyika. The true Congo may be said to be 
formed after the convergence of the western Lualaba 
and the Lukugu from Tanganyika. ... At this estuary 
the Congo discharges one million tons of water per 
second, and the reddish-yellow coloured waters exert an 
influence at no less a distance than 300 miles from the 
western shores of Africa." 



PIONEERS OF THE AIR 

How Man Learnt to Fly 

THE man who first began to tackle the problem of 
flight was a priest, Friar Bacon, the man who was 
given the credit of being in league with the devil 
because of inventiveness which to-day would have won 
him instant fame. When the friar saw the clouds sail- 
ing overhead he began to theorise on the possibility of 
man being able to sustain himself in the air as he did 
on the sea, and his imagination conceived "a large 
hollow globe of copper, or other suitable metal, wrought 
extremely thin, and filled with liquid fire." 

And that is as far as F,riar Bacon got with aeronautics, 
leaving it to another priest, four hundred years later, to 
wrestle with the problem. This is how the monk Lana 
worked matters out : He conceived, on paper, a boat 
with mast and sail like any sea-going craft, with four 
large copper globes, emptied of air to make them lighter 
than air, and — there you were ! Fortunately for Lana, 
if he had intended to go " up " 'himself, he did not carry 
his scheme any farther. 

In 1508, however, an air-crank. Abbot Damian, 
risked testing his own invention. He made for himself 
wings out of birds' feathers, and, attaching them to his 
side, proclaimed that he was bound from Stirling Castle 
to France ; the first recorded attempt at a cross-Ohannel 
flight ! Poor Damian went down with a crash and 
broke his leg ; but even that did not knock the en- 
thusiasm out of him, for when they picked him up he 
said that if his wings had been made of eagles' feathers 
everything would have been all right. 

184 



Pioneers of the Air 185 

Another early attempt at a flying machine was that 
of the great painter Leonardo da Vinci, who evolved a 
queer-looking craft — on paper again — ^with collapsible 
wings, which would open on the way down and fold on 
the upstroke. 

Coming to the practical realm, we see that it was 
the discovery of hydrogen that laid the foundations of 
the science of flight. A Dr. Black, of Edinburgh, 
suggested the use of it to raise light bladders from the 
ground, and the scientist Cavallo, in 1782, experimented 
with soap bubbles filled with the gas. 

The fact of the Brothers Montgolfier experimenting 
in 1782 with hot air in small paper bags showed how 
far men had come from the days of winged men and 
sailing boats of the sky ; it proved that the problem was 
being tackled scientifically. 

The Montgolfiers, having solved the problem of 
keeping the air rarefied by tying a small dish with 
glowing charcoal to the neck of their balloon, gave a 
public exhibition with a balloon 35 feet in diameter and 
23,000 feet in capacity, to the astonishment of everyone 
who saw it ascend. Then, when the people enthused, 
they sent up another balloon, this time filled with 
hydrogen. It was entirely successful, and later on 
another exhibition was held, and this time passengers 
went aloft with the balloon. They were only a cock, 
a duck, and a sheep, it is true, but the fact that they 
lived to come down again after a trip of half a mile 
proved that it was possible to travel in the air. 

So events moved on, and in 1783 the first airmen 
went aloft. They were Monsieur de Rozier and the 
Marquis d'Arlandes, who ventured in the wicker basket 
of a 74 feet balloon. Picture the scene : the two intrepid 
men, who had objected to the king's intention to send 
a convict on the trip, on the plea that "such honour 
ought not to be shown to criminals," standing in the 



i86 The Boy's Book of Pioneers 

basket, heaping fuel on to the fire in an iron brazier 
beneath the neck of the balloon. The ascent was 
altogether successful, except that there was a rapid 
descent through the fire slackening, and the aeronauts 
had to pile on the fuel to make their craft rise again. 

It was inevitable that the Montgolfier Brothers should 
not have the monopoly of the pioneer work. That same 
year there came two other brothers named Robert and 
a M. Charles, who, improving upon the hot-air balloon 
by a valved hydrogen balloon, succeeded in reaching 
the height of 10,000 feet without accident. 

It is not necessary to indicate the various ascents that 
took place thereafter until, in 1794, the balloon had 
been so perfected that it was put to practical use. In 
that year France and Austria were at war, and the 
French resolved to introduce this new "arm" into their 
service : they had invented it, and it should be made 
useful. The French army was near Fleurus, fighting 
their Austrian foes. They sent up a balloon, and the 
observation officer made notes and plans of the enemy's 
position, quite unconcerned by the pot-shots which the 
dismayed Austrians were taking at the balloon. 

That was the first use of aircraft in war, and from 
that time balloons were often used to assist armies in 
battle. When Napoleon was marching on Moscow the 
Russians constructed a big balloon which would enable 
men to ascend and drop bombs on the enemy. Un- 
fortunately for the Russians, something went wrong, 
and the French were not hoisted on their own petard. 
All this was but the adumbration of the use to which 
balloons, and aircraft generally, would be put in the 
years to come. 

Aerial matters moved apace, and in 1836 Green 
made a voyage from Vauxhall Gardens into the heart of 
Germany, travelling over France by night, and coming 
down in the Duchy of Nassau; a peaceful sort of raid, 



Pioneers of the Air 187 

far different from those made by Germans into England 
nearly a hundred years later ! 

In 1859 a record trip was made by the American 
Wise, who travelled nine hundred miles in nineteen 
hours. 

All this meant that progress was being made, and, 
while some men were experimenting with balloons, 
others were striving to solve the problem of steering 
them. It was felt that what was wanted was an air- 
craft that should not be entirely at the mercy of air 
currents. Thus, in 1784, the Brothers Robert had 
devised a fish-shaped vessel which was to be rowed by 
oars ! It didn't work, but the idea of a dirigible was 
not given up, and in 1812 the Leppig airship was 
evolved in Russia. In shape it was like a sperm whale, 
and it had a hand-manipulated propeller. It was not a 
success, neither was the Lennox airship of 1834, and 
the failure of hand-propulsion — which had been the 
method so far — led to the study of the practicability of 
fixing an engine that should drive the airship along. 
Again the French were the pioneers, and M. Giffard, 
in 1852, built a cigar-shaped balloon, with a car 
below, in which was a 3 h.p. steam engine driving 
a screw propeller. Undeterred by an accident in 
descent — the balloon was burst by an explosion — 
Giffard pegged away, and eventually succeeded in 
getting a steam-propelled balloon to go, at a speed of 
about eight feet per second through calm air ; moreover, 
the ship was steerable. 

Giffard's success was not overwhelming, but he had 
showed the way in which success lay. 

In 1872 a German enthusiast made a sharp-nosed 
airship, 160 feet long, with a four-cylinder gas engine, 
whose 2 h.p. drove a screw propeller, resulting in a 
speed of 15 feet per second, while the craft answered 
to the rudder. 



i88 The Boy's Book of Pioneers 

Thus was progress being made year by year, slowly, 
but surely, in the right direction, and in 1883 the 
Brothers Tissandier used an electric motor to supply the 
motive power. This was improved upon the following 
year by the French army officers Krebs and Renard, 
who, by means of a powerful electric dynamo, obtained 
a speed of fifteen miles an hour in a ship 165 feet long 
and 27 feet in diameter. How far, too, they went to 
solving the problem of steering is evidenced by the 
fact that the airship was made to describe a figure of 8 
in the air. 

Naturally, all this progress with balloons and 
dirigibles was not made without loss; many inventors 
were ruined ; many others gave their lives in the pioneer 
work. There was always the danger that experiments 
with some motor or some new gas might result in 
disaster, as was the case with the German Wolfert, who, 
in 1887, when travelling in a three-carred airship pro- 
pelled by a benzene motor, fell from a height of 500 
feet, his gas-filled envelope having caught fire. 

Yet all these experiments, costly though they were 
in treasure and life, only brought the science to the 
point where the questions : What was the best type of 
motor? and What was the best form of envelope? 
remained unanswered. There were some inventors who 
were in favour of the non-rigid type of envelope — a 
holder of gas which could be released when necessary; 
while others favoured the rigid type evolved in 1895 by 
an Austrian named Schwarz. This had an aluminium 
framework, while the envelope itself was a thin covering 
of the same metal. The German Zeppelin follows this 
type in many respects, but before we come to that there 
is the work of a famous Brazilian to be looked at. 

M. Santos-Dumont, who had been a keen balloonist, 
took up the problem of the dirigible, and fastened upon 
the engine used to drive motor-tricycles as the one likely 



Pioneers of the Air 189 

to produce the best results. "Santos-Dumont No. i " 
proved to him how right he was. The ship was 825^ 
feet long, with a small car suspended from wooden 
rods and holding the 3^-h.p. engine, which drove a 
two-bladed propeller; two ballast bags, to allow the ship 
to rise or fall, were arranged to slide backward or forward 
as required, and the pilot steered by the aid of a silk- 
covered rudder. The trials were so successful that the 
inventor went ahead and built another craft, which, 
however, came to a sad end through the balloonette 
inside the envelope being faulty, and the aeronaut had 
a narrow escape from being dashed to pieces when his 
sausage-shaped airship came hurtling earthwards. 

His third creation was more successful, and rather 
different from its predecessors, being shorter and thicker 
as regards the envelope, the nose and stern of which 
were very sharp. Also, in order to keep the envelope 
rigid, a bamboo keel was hung just beneath it, while 
the engine was in a car below the keel. Paris, the 
home of aviation, was highly delighted w'hen the 
inventor went for a trip over its housetops, performing 
what were then all manner of wonderful manoeuvres of 
steering. 

Really, the airship was arriving I The labours of 
the pioneers were nearing success. 

"Santos-Dumont No. 4" was an even greater 
success. The bamboo keel was now turned into a deck, 
carrying the 7-h.p. engine and the pilot's seat. "No. 4 " 
was a tractor, the two-bladed propeller being on the 
fore of the keel. Having experimented with the ship, 
Santos-Dumont made various alterations, building a 
wooden framework to take the place of the keel, which 
was suspended by wire instead of rope, as in the previous 
ships. 

This was in 1900, the year in which 100,000 francs 
were offered to the first aeronaut who, within a 



igo The Boy's Book of Pioneers 

certain limit of time, should make the journey, in a 
dirigible, from St. Cloud, round the Eiffel Tower, and 
back, within half an hour. In 1901, in his "No. 5," 
Santos-Dumont attempted to win that prize, but, after 
having rounded the Tower, within nine minutes of the 
start, he was startled to find that his balloon was rapidly 
deflating through the leakage of one of his automatic 
valves. It was distinctly annoying, and dangerous. 
To descend meant the certainty of smashing into the 
roofs; the aeronaut had no ballast to throw overboard 
and so ascend, and yet, as the seconds passed, Santos- 
Dumont realised that unless something happened to 
help him he was likely to reach a different goal from 
that which would win him the great prize. Trusting 
to luck, he let the airship sail on through the air, in 
the hope that he might get away from the city before 
coming down. All might have been well had not fate 
played him a scurvy trick : the deflated envelope caused 
the suspending wires to sag so much that the propeller 
snipped one of them in half. Santos-Dumont realised 
that if that sort of thing went on he would go tumbling 
down, so, preferring to take another kind of risk, he 
stopped his motor, and was caught by the wind and 
carried back towards the heart of the city, falling all 
the time, with the fore end of the ship tossing perilously. 
Crash she went on to the roof of an hotel, and held there, 
flopped about at the mercy of the wind, while the pilot 
clung on to his seat for dear life until he was fetched 
down by firemen. 

Nothing discouraged, Santos-Dumont persevered, 
profiting by his misfortunes and those of others, notably 
one M. Severo, who had been killed while on a trial 
trip with a dirigible whose engine was quite near to 
the gas-filled envelope, which burst and caught fire 
when at a great altitude. 

It is very likely that, as in the case of "Santos- 



Pioneers of the Air 191 

Dumont 5," faulty valves had something to do with this 
accident, and in "No. 6" the inventor was very careful 
about these devices. The airship carried a 12-h.p. 
motor, and, after some slight mishaps, in 1904 Santos- 
Dumont made another, and successful, attempt to win 
the big prize. 

While Santos-Dumont and other enthusiasts were 
perfecting the non-rigid airship, Count Zeppelin, in 
Germany, was studying the problem of the rigid type. 
He had heard of the Schwarz airship, with its aluminium 
frame, and the Zeppelin was upon these lines, although 
Count Zeppelin set himself to evolve something which 
should be far ahead of anything yet produced. His 
airship was to be the biggest ever attempted, and, 
realising that to build it would present many diffi- 
culties unless proper docking was prepared, he built 
for himself a huge floating dock on Lake Constance, 
near Friedrichshaven, where to-day there is a big 
Zeppelin-building establishment. There the Count con- 
structed his giant airship. She had a diameter of 
39 feet and a length ten times that. The envelope was 
cylindrical^ with conical ends, but instead of being 
merely a big bag filled with gas, it was constructed on 
an aluminium framework, inside which were no fewer 
than seventeen gas-tight balloons, the outside covering 
being of pegamoid, to protect it from sun and rain. 
The balloons were held together by polygonal rings, 
and their total capacity was about 420,000 cubic feet; 
it took five hours to fill them with hydrogen. Four 
pairs of aluminium screw propellers, each making over 
a thousand revolutions per minute, were used, and in 
each of the two cars swinging below the envelope was a 
16-h.p. motor. Ingenious arrangements were made to 
obtain and maintain stability, and the steering apparatus 
in bow and stern was controlled by wires from the cars. 

"Zeppelin No. i " went on her trial trip on July 22, 



192 The Boy's Book of Pioneers 

1900, and although she showed herself airworthy, 
despite an accident to the stability arrangements, her 
inventor realised that he could improve upon her, which 
he did with "Zeppelin No. 2," finished in 1905. This 
had eight 85-h.p. motors, and steering was aided by 
vertical and horizontal planes at each end of the 
balloon. 

Although many improvements were made in later 
Zeppelins, they were all based upon these earlier ones; 
more powerful motors were used, the cars were swung 
just below a covered keel running almost end to end 
of the balloon, and fuel-carrying capacity was increased. 

"Zeppelin No. 4" came to a tragic end. In the 
summer of 1908 she had made a brilliant trip of 230 
miles, and the German Government foresaw that the 
new craft was likely to be of great value as a war 
machine. A twenty-four hour flight was arranged, and, 
at a speed of twenty-four miles an hour, the Zeppelin 
proved herself a wonder; after a while, however, the 
speed slackened to twelve miles per hour, and when 
370 miles had been covered the ship had to descend. 
While anchored, a thunderstorm broke out. Those who 
favoured the non-rigid type of airship had pointed out 
that the bulk of the rigid type placed her at the mercy 
of every wind that blew when she was moored in the 
open, for it was impossible to reduce the bulk by 
deflating, and the fate of "Zeppelin No. 4" proved how 
accurate these theorists were. Although the men tried 
to hold her down, the airship, caught by the wind, 
broke away, and, worse than ever, an accident of some 
kind caused her to burst into flames. Down she came, a 
blazing mass which rushed to an inglorious end. 

Yet Count Zeppelin knew that he had solved the 
problem of the steerable, speedy, rigid airship, and 
from that time he devoted himself to the perfection of 
his machine until the war Zeppelin of 19 16 was evolved 



Pioneers of the Air 193 

— a beautiful creation, to be put to the terrible use of 
killing innocent women and children during bomb- 
dropping raids over peaceful villages. 

While Germany was plodding away at the rigid 
airship other nations were also exerting themselves in 
the same direction, although not every flight expert 
favoured, as we have indicated, the rigid type. In 
Great Britain, in France, in Russia, year after year, the 
new science was developing to sucli an extent that 
merely to mention the names of the inventors would 
take up far too much space, and, side by side with air- 
ship development, there was a different kind of flying 
machine emerging as the result of experiments made 
by inventors whose doings we must now glance at. 

The example of Abbot Damian, who jumped from a 
height and tried to fly by the aid of wings attached to 
his body, was followed to some extent by other workers 
in the air; wings,, upward and downward flapping 
wing=, seemed to be necessary, and aerialists studied the 
movements of birds' wings, although much quicker pro- 
gress might have been made if the experts had con- 
centrated upon the principle first advocated by Sir 
George Cayley, who, in 1769, constructed a little 
machine with screw propellers made of feathers ; in 
the trials it actually rose from the ground ! 

That may be said to have been the beginning of the 
heavier-than-air machine, and Cayley, after having 
studied the problem further, devised a machine with a 
surface of 300 square feet, with planes set V-shape, and 
a rudder in the relative position to the planes that a 
bird's tail is to its wings. Although the machine was 
broken accidentally, it is asserted that when it was run 
forward by a man against a wind, which set the pro- 
peller screws working, it lifted him and carried him for a 
short distance. All that Cayley wanted to turn his 
experimental toy into an aeroplane was a light engine, 

N 



194 The Boy's Book of Pioneers 

but this was not forthcoming, and it was to be left to 
others to take up the work where he left off. 

Skipping over the efforts of many men, we come to 
the work of Henson, who, in 1842, constructed a bat- 
Uke monoplane, with a car, in which engines and fuel 
were to be carried. The plane was formed by canvas 
stretched over a bamboo frame reaching out on either 
side of the car; there were two large fan-wheels behind 
the plane, to act as propellers, worked by bands running 
round the wheels of the steam-engine in the car. The 
rudder was fixed just beneath a tail placed in the stern 
to enable the machine to ascend or descend. It was 
not miniature, this monoplane, for the planes had a 
surface of 4,500 square feet, and the tail 1,500 square 
feet. The engine, however, was only 25-h.p., and here 
may be placed the great fault of the machine, for, 
weighing 3,000 pounds, there was not enough power 
to make it successful. 

Stringfellow, in 1847, built a flying model, and 
while he was experimenting with a view to a larger 
machine, Wenham, in 1867, devised what was called 
an aeroplane, seemingly the first use of that name for a 
flying machine. He worked on sound lines, but the 
lack of a suitable engine crippled him, as it had done 
others before him. The year after Wenham 's experi- 
ments, Stringfellow appeared with a kind of triplane 
model, driven by a X~h-R- engine, which, he said, had 
raised it from the ground during his experiments; when 
showed at the Crystal Palace, however, it would not do 
this. 

Following Stringfellow came Sir Hiram Maxim, 
inventor-in-general to humanity, who produced the first 
full-sized aeroplane fitted with an engine, with the 
object of actual flight. It was a tremendous monoplane, 
with auxiliary supporting planes, and its two engines 
were each of i8o-h.p., which would certainly be needed 



Pioneers of the Air 195 

to lift its 8,000 pounds when all necessaries and the crew 
were aboard. After all, however, because he wanted to 
make sure of the perfection of his machine, Maxim did 
not try free flights, and eventually, owing to the costly 
nature of the experiments, he set his machine on one 
side. 

At first sight it may seem strange that the problem 
of heavier-than-air machines was not solved by the 
inventors who theorised on paper, made diagrams 
worked out to scale, and then produced their experi- 
mental machines, but by a man who used no engines in 
his experiments, but simply planes. But such is the 
case. Otto Lilienthal and his brother Gustav experi- 
mented with gliders, un-engined, and with no screws. 
He discarded the "flapping wings" theory, and tested 
the sustaining power of various surfaces until he had 
reached the point where he invented a glider with two 
curved wings, stretched over a light wooden framework. 
The machine had a tail comprised of a vertical and a 
horizontal plane, and the inventor supported himself on 
two padded cushions in the space beneath the two 
Avings. 

Apparently a very flimsy affair to trust oneself to, 
but Lilienthal did so, jumping off small hillocks and 
gliding safely to earth, gradually increasing the height, 
until at last he was able to leap from a height of 50 feet. 
The lessons that he learned during these flights told 
him that he was on the right lines, and he might have 
gone a long way to solving the whole problem had he 
not met with a tragic end. Flying with a biplane 
glider, a gust of wind caught him and tilted the glider 
over so far that it was impossible to recover balance, 
and Lilienthal fell to the ground, dying in 1896 from 
the injuries received. 

Other men, Pilcher, the Englishman, Chanute, the 
American, pioneered in the same direction, and the 



196 The Boy's Book of Pioneers 

results of their experiments led the Brothers Wright, of 
America, to take up the problem and carry it to the 
climax of a perfect flight. 

The Wright glider was a more pretentious affair 
than its predecessors, for the brothers aimed at being 
in the air long enough to take valuable observations 
regarding balance and lift. They hid themselves away 
from the prying eyes of pressmen, told ho one what they 
were doing, kept their secrets well ; and in their biplane 
glider, in which the pilot could lie down, they made 
long flights, improving their machine as the months 
rolled by, and obtaining great success with their experi- 
ments with a rudder. They were not in a hurry; they 
determined that they would wrest success by the care- 
ful study of angles, air-pressures, controls, supporting 
surfaces, and so on ; the fixing of an engine could wait 
until they were quite sure. 

All this work of several years' patient plodding was 
not done without its danger, and on more than one 
occasion the glider hurtled down to the earth. One 
day it seemed that Orville Wright was doomed, for, 
while experimenting in a soaring motion, the glider, 
now a very large one, tilted up sharply, then dropped 
back, and Orville Wright came to earth amongst the 
wreckage, fortunately uninjured. 

After having obtained complete mastery of their 
engineless glider, both in straight gliding, soaring, 
turning, descending, the Wrights fitted their engine, 
and, still keeping their secrets, they succeeded in 
making flights of various distances until, by 1904, 
Chanute, whose name we have mentioned in connection 
with gliders, saw them fly for over 1,000 feet, and the 
following year Europe was startled by rumours that the 
brothers had succeeded in flying nearly 25 miles in 
38 minutes ! 

Here mention should be made of the European 




A combat in mid-air between a British aeroplane and a German Zeppelin — 
showing how far the science of aviation has progressed since the days of 
Friar Bacon 



Pioneers of the Air 197 

pioneers who were tackling the problem from the other 
point of view : building models before learning to fly, as 
the Wrights were doing. Success attended them, in a 
measure, for in 1897, long before the Wrights had 
reached the point where they put their engine in, M. 
Ader, a French electrical engineer, had built a mono- 
plane which really did fly, the first to do so. Ader's 
machine, however, failed to satisfy the French Govern- 
ment, and the inventor lost heart; while another French- 
man, M. Tatin, lost his model at sea, and, because the 
work was too expensive, gave up striving after success. 

Hargrave in Australia, Ferber, Voisin and Bl^riot 
in France, and many other enthusiasts in different 
countries were striving after the goal, which the Wrights 
reached. It was in 1903 they made their trial trips 
in an engine-driven plane, and yet the world would not 
believe the stories it heard. StilT, the Wrights were 
not out for fame : they had by no means finished their 
work, and, as we have seen above, they persevered 
until they had actually solved the problem. While 
other men — Santos-Dumont, Voisin and Farman, for 
instance — were flying yards, the Wrights were flying 
miles, and when, in 1908, Wilbur Wright came to 
Europe and made various flights, one of them lasting 
an hour and a half, and covering fifty miles, the world 
knew that the flying age had really dawned. 

Yet only dawned; and even yet the full day of 
flight has not come, although the great war has fore- 
shadowed what it may be like. 

At the best this chapter on pioneers of the air could 
but be scanty. There are scores of names which should 
have found a place in it, but we have taken a few of 
the outstanding ones, and showed how the mastery of 
the air has developed from the feather wings of Abbot 
Damian to the Zeppelin and aeroplane of to-day ; and, 
to close the chapter and show the degree of efficiency 



igS The Boy's Book of Pioneers 

arrived at, we can perhaps do no better than give an 
account of two of the most stirring episodes of the air. 

It was on June 7, 1915, that the most remarkable 
duel in history till then took place. It was between a 
British flight sub-lieutenant in a small monoplane and 
a German Zeppelin. The lieutenant's name was 
Warneford, of the Royal Naval Air Service, then an 
almost new arm of the British fighting forces, but one 
which had proved its value. Warneford had been out 
on a reconnaissance, together with two other pilots, and 
at one place a Zeppelin shed, containing an airship, had 
been wrecked by bombs, and the airship smashed and 
burnt. After this Warneford had gone off on his own, 
winging his way over the war-scarred plains of Belgium, 
unseen by the Germans below, for dawn had not yet 
come. When the grey fingers of dawn were reaching 
up into the sky he saw coming towards him the grey 
mass which told him that a Zeppelin was abroad. 
Knowing that the only chance of an aeroplane success- 
fully attacking a Zeppelin was by rising and remaining 
above it, Warneford set his machine to climb aloft, and 
was well up before the men in the airship saw him. 
When they did so, there began a chase, the Zeppelin 
hoping to reach the airship sheds at Ghent and descend 
before the British aviator could attack them. 

Warneford was, however, working things out very 
carefully. Up and up he climbed, until he was in what 
he regarded as the best position for attacking. Then 
he came down to within two hundred feet of the top 
of the Zeppelin, being fired at by the machine gunners 
in the car. He was not hit, however, and had managed 
to get exactly overhead when he began to drop bombs. 

Imagine that comparatively tiny machine hovering 
over the huge bulk of the Zeppelin, with men in the 
car below trying all they could to fire at it and bring 
it down, while the lone aviator was loosing the bombs 



Pioneers of the Air 199 

from the contrivance which held them. A fight the lilce 
of which our forefathers would never have believed 
possible I 

Then, imagine the exhilaration of that Britisher, 
when presently, one of his bombs hit the envelope of 
the Zeppelin fairly and squarely I Followed a terrific 
explosion, which upset the equilibrium of the mono- 
plane, which was so close to its victim that it turned 
turtle, nose-dived with a sudden swoop, and actually 
looped the loop, righting itself only because of the 
marvellous control of the pilot. 

Warneford saw his victim drop through the air on 
to the roofs of Ghent, and, knowing that his work was 
done, began to think of getting away ; but imagine his 
dismay when he found that his engine had gone wrong I 
It was a case of going down, and at once, to put it 
right; going down, too, into the enemy's lines. Yet, 
there was nothing for it, and Warneford planed down, 
reached earth, jumped out, put his engine right, every 
moment expecting some enemy to appear on the scene, 
and determined to sell his life dearly. But at last it 
was done, the engine was ready, and away the hero 
went, to be received with a mighty welcome by his 
comrades. All the world marvelled, for this was the 
first time that a Zeppelin had been successfully fought 
by an aeroplane. 

Warneford won the V.C. that day, although he did 
not live long to enjoy the honour, being killed in an 
accident which befel him on June 17 while flying 
behind the Allied lines in France. 

It was one of the epics of the war and of the con- 
quest of the air; and another one was the feat of two 
unnamed aerial heroes of France : 

Acting on instructions, they went on a mission 
perilous, which was to find out the position of a Ger- 
man battery that was doing much damage to the French 



200 The Boy's Book of Pioneers 

lines. The observer, a young lieutenant, was well 
pleased when, after having run the gauntlet of a 
hundred guns, and passing through an inferno of a 
thousand shells, he succeeded in locating the battery 
and some others near at hand. 

Above the roar of the engine and the sharp, staccato 
notes of exploding shells, the pilot heard the lieutenant's 
voice : 

"Turn back, we've got what we came for ! " 

The watching, firing Germans saw the aeroplane 
swerve, saw it bank perilously, and realised that the 
aviator-scouts were off back to their own lines with in- 
formation which would bring a tornado of fire upon 
the concealed batteries. As the machine righted itself 
there came an intensified thunder of guns, the airmen 
saw the belching smoke below, heard the scream of 
shells rushing dangerously near, and smiled grimly as 
now and again shrapnel bullets pierced the aeroplane's 
wings. The smoke from the bursting shells made it 
almost impossible for the pilot to see any distance, and 
to get away he knew that he must soar, especially as 
the Germans were finding the range too surely. He 
manipulated his levers, and the machine began to rise 
easily, as a bird rises on the wing. 

Even at the moment when it seemed that they would 
get away there was a crash as though heaven and earth 
had met in one catastrophic smash. From the maw of 
a German gun had sped a shell which, rising to a great 
height, burst directly over the aeroplane, its shower of 
bullets spreading all around, its smoke blotting out 
earth and sky. For an instant — an instant fraught with 
the possibility of death — the pilot felt helpless, almost 
poisoned as he was by the sickening smell and deafened 
by the terrific roar. And in that instant he was an 
automaton — a mere machine which did the work it was 
accustomed to. By no volition of his own he kept his 



Pioneers of the Air 201 

hand on the control wheel, and the aeroplane sped 
through the fog, onwards and upwards. 

Once out of the acid-filled radius, the aviator seemed 
to regain his senses; he again was consciously guiding 
the machine. But, although the mists of the mind were 
clearing a little, he did not realise at once what had 
happened ; he felt pain — a searing pain that seemed to be 
burning into his very brain by way of his eyes; he 
could see no clear, blue sky, could catch no glimpse of 
the far-away earth below. He told himself that that 
was because of the shell-fog surrounding him ; he must 
get higher still, higher even than the six thousand feet 
he had been when the terror came ; so, a touch on the 
lever, a leap of the machine, and up, up, into what the 
unnamed hero knew must be clear air; but still the 
darkness, the unutterable blackness. 

Then it came to him — came as come the greatest 
things in a man's life, suddenly, overpoweringly, the 
knowledge that he was blind. 

At such a moment a man may be forgiven if all his 
defences are let down and the Great Fear enters in. The 
horror of it all surged through this Frenchman's being. 
Over six thousand feet above the earth, with death — an 
awful death — below if he lost touch of the sensitive 
levers of his machine; death, for all he knew, hovering 
around him in the shape of German shells; death, above 
him perhaps, from some German aviator who might 
have risen to driv^ him back; certainly death if he 
dropped low too suddenly. 

Then the terror passed. Knowing not whither he 
went — went on, descending slowly, and hoping that he 
was going towards his own lines. For did not his 
comrades await his coming with the news of the where- 
abouts of the hidden guns ? 

The thought of this reminded him that he had a 
companion. Instinctively he turned his sightless eyes 



202 The Boy's Book of Pioneers 

as though he would look upon the observer; he saw 
nothing, but there came to him the voice of the 
lieutenant, strangely weak, yet fiercely insistent : 

"Look out! Go up! " 

There was no time for questions. The pilot knew, 
though he saw not, that the lieutenant had seen that 
which made ascent imperative. So violently did he 
jerk the machine upwards that it seemed it must collapse. 
There was a scraping which the blinded pilot could not 
understand until the observer told him that they had 
crashed into a steeple vane and scarred their way along 
it. By a miracle the machine kept its balance, its body 
was not torn to pieces; it rose higher, away out of 
danger. 

"I'm dying," said the observer, when that peril was 
past. 

Extraordinary though it may seem, the pilot saw 
nothing strange in that tragic announcement; the 
wonder was that both were not lying dead below. 

"And I — I am blind," he said simply. 

Never before, surely, were two men in such a 
predicament I A blind man piloting an aeroplane 
which was the hearse of another. 

And yet these men thought not of themselves, only 
of the information they had been sent to obtain and 
carry to headquarters. 

"We must get back," said one. 

"Yes," said the other, as though it were the most 
matter-of-fact thing in the world for a blind man and a 
dying man to be winging through space. They knew 
the way it was to be done : while the pilot guided the 
machine the observer must guide him, the dying man 
must lead the blind. . . . 

The lieutenant's last instruction was about landing ; 
the pilot took it, as indeed it was, ^as a message from 
the dead. He manipulated his levers, the machine 



Pioneers of the Air 203 

began to descend in a spiral, the sightless pilot keeping 
his hand on the wheel, and waiting, waiting for he 
knew not what. Perhaps a crash into the top of some 
trees or on to the roof of some house. Perhaps 
— perhaps a hundred likely things occurred to the pilot 
as he sat helpless in his seat — helpless and wellnigh 
hopeless. 

But, light as a bird, the machine touched earth, ran 
along a little, then stopped. There was a rush of many 
feet, the pilot was taken out of the aeroplane alive, the 
lieutenant was lifted out dead. He had made himself 
live till the work was done; his unconquerable spirit, 
his devotion to duty had kept him going till the French 
lines were reached and it was possible for the pilot to 
descend with the news they had been to fetch. 

Calmly the sightless pilot told of the guns that lay 
hidden from sight, told of the flight with death hover- 
ing all around, and then the strong man became weak 
because he knew that his work was done. 

"All I regret is that I cannot do it again!" he 
said sadly. 

It is such men as these two heroes who have made 
the Allied aerial arm of war so efficient; men who, in 
face of death and disaster, do their utmost, hold on 
until the work they have begun has been finished. They 
are the followers of the men who led the way into the 
realms of the air. 



A JOURNEY TOWARDS LHASA 

A Woman Pioneer's Great Achievement 

SO far in this book, we have told only of men who 
have ventured forth into the unknown to blaze the 
trail for future generations or to carry to secluded people 
tidings of the great world outside, and to introduce, or 
prepare the way for the introduction of, the blessings of 
civilisation. But history has to tell of members of the 
"weaker sex" who have pioneered in many different 
fields that out of their labours good might come. 

It is, indeed, difficult to find any sphere where 
woman has not, to her own glory, competed with man. 
Name any male explorer or missionary you like who 
has gone through tremendous adventures, such as that 
young missionary-doctor who, in his village in the 
heart of Persia, had to go forth, fearlessly and alone, 
to plead with twenty thousand Kurds, with the lust of 
blood upon them, to save his people ; and you can 
match it with Mrs. Livingstone, who accompanied her 
husband so often and so far into the heart of Africa; 
with Mrs. Peary, who went with the discoverer of the 
North Pole; with Lady Baker; with Mrs. Gordon- 
Cumming, who went into dozens of unknown parts of 
the world and braved endless perils; with Mrs. Bishop 
in China, and many others. 

Or speak of Rontgen and his rays, and in the same 
breath you must speak of Madame Curie, who made 
the great discovery of radium, after many years' search. 
Madame Curie, daughter of a Polish professor, was a 
brilliant helpmeet to a clever but poor professor of 
science in Paris. She, interested in Rontgen's discovery 

204 



A Journey towards Lhasa 205 

and Becquerel's experiments with the X-rays, set to 
woric to follow those experiments much further. Madame 
Curie, after an exhaustive search for a radioactive 
principle in many metals, came back to pitch-blende, 
whence Becquerel had obtained his uranium salt, the 
first found radioactive substance. 

For years the work went on, the work of sifting the 
apparently trivial pitch-blende, which men had used 
only for staining glass; and after all the labour of 
years Madame Curie obtained success. She discovered 
radium, the new metal which is a "million times as 
active as uranium." 

And so one could go on with a host of other women 
pioneers, had one but the space. As it is, we must 
content ourselves with giving in fuller detail the story 
of an intrepid pioneer of the strenuous type — the 
missionary-explorer. 

In this sphere of unselfish labour is the name of 
Miss Annie R. Taylor enshrined; she was the first 
Protestant missionary to make a resolute endeavour to 
reach Lhasa. 

Many years before Lhasa had been visited by a 
fellow-countryman of hers, Thomas Manning, who had 
succeeded, at terrible risk and much arduous travelling, 
in reaching the mysterious city of the Grand Lama. 
Following that, forty years after, in fact, the French 
missionaries. Hue and Gabet, had also journeyed into 
Lhasa. 

In view of the manner in which the approach to 
Lhasa was guarded and the dangers that attended the 
strangers who made the great venture, it is not a little 
surprising to find a lady attempting it. It was not that 
she did not know what lay before her ; in fact, it was not 
ignorance of the possibilities that lured her on, but rather, 
knowing of the need that Tibet had of learning some- 
thing of the evangel of which she was a teacher. Her 



2o6 The Boy's Book of Pioneers 

work for the China Inland Mission at Tau-ehau, quite 
near the frontier of Tibet, had brought her into contact 
with people who knew a little about the great land 
beyond; and when, in 1887, she visited the Lama 
monastery at Kum-Kum, she felt the urge to penetrate 
the mystery-land. 

Realising that if she was to do so at all successfully 
she must be prepared. Miss Taylor, whose original in- 
tention was to strike out from India, across the Hima- 
layas, went into Sikkim, and under the very shelter of a 
Tibetan fort, Kambajong, set to work to study the 
language. 

While there she had her first foretaste of what lay 
before her. The people did not look kindly upon her, 
and did all in their power to get rid of her. They 
tried to frighten her away by covert threats, and, find- 
ing these of no avail, they fell back upon a peculiar 
custom of theirs, namely, "praying people dead" I 

No doubt the Tibetans had a wonderful belief in the 
efficacy of prayer, especially when prayer was accom- 
panied by "works." How these religious folk co- 
operated faith and works is clear from the incident 
which nearly cost Miss Taylor her life. They prayed, 
and while the prayers were in full swing. Miss Taylor 
was invited to dinner, and almost immediately after- 
wards was seized with an illness which had every 
appearance of aconite poisoning. 

Miss Taylor left Kambajong, not with the intention 
of giving up her self-imposed mission, but simply to 
find safer quarters, which she did near the Podang 
Gumpas monastery, where she applied herself to the 
study of the language. 

For twelve months the devoted missionary worked 
hard, exiled from people of her own colour, and living 
the simple life of the natives among whom she mixed. 
In this way she acquired a great knowledge of the 



A Journey towards Lhasa 207 

people, and also gathered how difficult it would be, if 
not impossible, to reach Lhasa via the Himalayas. For, 
closely guarded though the route from China was, it 
was as nothir^g compared with the vigilance exercised in 
keeping out foreigners from India. So, still determined 
to get through somehow. Miss Taylor gave up the idea 
of going through the Himalayas, and travelled to 
Shanghai, thence up the great Yang-tse for a couple of 
thousand miles to Tau-chau. 

She took with her a young Tibetan from Lhasa ; his 
name was Pontso, and he was devoted to the white lady 
because, having been seriously injured in an accident, 
she had befriended him, and nursed him back to health 
and strength. It was a case of bread being cast upon 
the waters, for no woman ever had so devoted a slave as 
Pontso proved to Miss Taylor. He was invaluable to 
her during the year that she lingered at Tau-chau, where 
she perfected herself in the language and made herself 
acquainted with the customs of the Tibetans and their 
religion. 

The patience and assiduity of Miss Taylor are strik- 
ing as a commentary upon the single-eyed purpose of 
the people whose work in life is to preach the Gospel of 
Christianity : a year at Podang Gumpas and another at 
Tau-chau. What more need be said for the earnestness 
of this woman pioneer? 

At last came the time when she could go forward 
on her great venture. She made friends with a 
Chinese Mohammedan named Noga — a thorough-paced 
scoundrel, as events proved. He was a merchant in 
Tau-chau, who made periodical trips into Lhasa in the 
course of his trading, and three years before, on his 
return, had brought back with him a Tibetan wife, 
named Erminie. When Noga discovered how keen 
Miss Taylor was to go into Lhasa he offered her his 
services on condition that she should furnish the horses 



2o8 The Boy's Book of Pioneers 

and pay all expenses. Miss Taylor agreed, and made 
the discovery why Noga was so very willing to act as 
guide. The marriage custom of Tibet was similar to 
that which certain sociologists in America and Europe 
have advocated during recent years, namely, marriage 
on lease I Noga had his wife on a three years' lease, 
and Mrs. Noga was desirous of returning to her native 
land now that the term had expired, and Mr. Noga was 
nothing loth to part with his beauteous Erminie — 
especially as someone else would pay expenses incurred 
in the reversion of his leasehold I 

Having fixed up matters amicably. Miss Taylor made 
arrangements to set out on her great journey. It was 
not a very imposing caravan : it consisted of herself and 
five Asiatics, Mr. and Mrs. Noga, a Chinese servant, a 
Tibetan frontiersman, and Pontso, who was bent on 
accompanying his friend wherever she liked to lead. 
The stores were carried by horses, of which there were 
sixteen altogether. 

Elated at the fact that she had at last set her feet 
upon the road to Lhasa, Miss Taylor rode out of Tau- 
chau in high spirits, and all went well until they crossed 
the Chinese frontier into Tibet. The way lay along 
a mountain track, which was known to be infested by 
brigands, who robbed whatever travellers dared the 
dangers of the road. 

The first band of brigands was passed with safety, 
though not without a fight, in which the robbers were 
worsted, chiefly as the result of the travellers being 
better armed. The next party of brigands, however, 
were not put off so lightly, although Miss Taylor herself 
suffered little loss, as will be seen, and why. 

The caravan had joined up with a larger one com- 
prised of Mongols^ and while they were journeying 
along the mountain pass, two hundred brigands swooped 
down upon them suddenly. It was enough to startle 



A Journey towards Lhasa 209 

the strongest nerved, especially as the yelling robbers 
surrounded the caravan and opened fire upon it. It 
was fruitless to resist : that would have only meant more 
bloodshed ; as it was, two men were killed and seven 
wounded. The upshot of it all was that the Mongol 
caravan was robbed of all its goods, and poor Nogbey, 
the Tibetan frontiersman, who was not attached in an 
official capacity to Miss Taylor's party, had all his 
valuables taken from him as well. Then the Mongols 
and Nogbey were forced to go back. 

As for Miss Taylor and her four attendants, they 
were allowed to go on, suffering only the loss of two 
horses and some goods, because the Tibetan brigand's 
code of honour will not allow him to make war against 
women I 

Leaving the country of the brigands, Miss Taylor 
and her little party of four pressed on until they came to 
the territory of the Goloks— a fearsome race of raiders, 
who owned allegiance to no one; neither Tibet nor 
China could claim sovereignty over them. These Goloks 
were never so happy as when they were on the war- 
path — against someone weaker than themselves. They 
would swoop down upon peace-loving folk, -and seize 
whatever they could lay hands on, returning to their 
villages with herds of cattle, the spoils of victory. 

It was no pleasant prospect that faced Miss Taylor; 
yet, even the knowledge that if she would reach Lhasa 
by the route she had chosen it would be necessary for 
her to brave the dangers of such an unsettled country 
did not move her from her determination to go forward. 
What might have happened to her, however, had she 
not been taken under the wing of Wachu Bumo, 
chief tainess of one of the tribes, no one can tell. As 
it was, the Golok woman threw the mantle of her pro- 
tection over the white woman — it seemed to her strange 
that a woman should do what Miss Taylor was doing— 
o 



210 The Boy's Book of Pioneers 

and the result was that while the missionary was 
travelling through the country she had little to 
complain of. 

Wachu Bumo even went so far as to provide an 
escort of a couple of Golok horsemen to see her through 
the land and well beyond its borders; and it is easy to 
see that this sign of high favour had a great effect upon 
the raiding and thieving Goloks. 

It was after leaving Golok territory that a great 
disaster came. Miss Taylor's Chinese servant, who was 
a strongly-built young man, and seemed well fitted for 
the terrible journey, was taken ill ; the exposure in the 
cold land had laid him low, and he very soon died. 
"We buried him at noon," says Miss Taylor in her 
brilliant little book, "Pioneering in Tibet."* "A bright 
sun lightened up the snow-clad hills, when the men 
dug up a few sods in some swampy ground close by, 
laid down the body in ij;s shroud of white cloth, and 
covered it as best they could with the frost-bound 
earth. At night the wolves were howling round the 
grave. This was in the Peigo country." 

In that word-picture of the funeral of the Chinese 
servant is packed a whole story of endurance. Snow- 
clad hills, that had to be crossed by night and day, 
often with the snow driving in their faces, as had 
bridgeless rivers; swamp ground, that, too, had to be 
traversed, and frost-bound earth. Day after day the 
travellers had gone on with winds biting their faces and 
the intense cold gripping them ; wolves howling round, 
grim foes who followed in the hope of food. And 
through all this the intrepid woman had passed — she 
who had been looked upon as delicate ! Undoubtedly it 
was only the spirit of the pioneer which enabled her to 
triumph over all the difficulties. 

* Published by Messrs. Morgan and Scott, by whose kind permission 
I have been enabled to draw upon it. 



A Journey towards Lhasa 211 

While Miss Taylor was able to conquer all the 
obstacles that Nature could put in her way, she would 
have been powerless to triumph over the machinations 
of man had it not been for the faithfulness of Pontso 
and a young Tibetan whom she had enlisted in the place 
of her Chinese servant. She had met him in the 
mountain town of Gala, set among the mighty 
mountains, and she was particularly gratified when he 
agreed to accompany her, because he knew Lhasa quite 
well, and would prove an invaluable guide. How 
valuable he was to be Miss Taylor did not realise then. 

We said earlier that Noga was a thorough-paced 
scoundrel, which is really a very mild form of descrip- 
tion for him. For although he had seemed eager to lead 
Miss Taylor to Lhasa, it transpired afterwards that his 
intention was to guide her into a most difficult part of 
the country, and there murder her for the sake of the 
plunder he would get. He showed his hand quite early, 
and Miss Taylor had a great deal of trouble with Noga 
and his wife right from the very beginning, but did not 
suspect what the design was. It was not until after they 
had passed Gala that the rascal showed himself in his 
true colours. He considered that the mountain country 
was best suited to his purpose, and he planned and 
plotted in secret to secure the death of Miss Taylor, 
whose life would not have been worth the proverbial groat 
had it not been for Pontso and the young Tibetan from 
Gala, whose name, by the way, was Pa-tegn. These 
two heroes by one means or another always frustrated 
the attempts of Noga, who at last realised that he could 
do no good by staying, and that if he ran off with as 
much as he could he would obtain more plunder than 
by staying, which, in December, he promptly did. 
With him went his wife, a mule, a horse, the larger 
of the two tents, and such food as was available, leaving 
Miss Taylor and her two servants in dire difficulties. 



212 The Boy's Book of Pioneers 

Almost foodless, with more horses than they knew what 
to do with, and only one tent, which soon had to go in 
exchange for food, the brave little party nevertheless 
pushed on through the bleak mountain passes. At night 
they slept in holes in the ground, swept by the bitter 
winds, drenched by rain or covered with snow; by day 
they toiled on bravely, almost reaching the limit of 
endurance by the time they had passed through the 
terrible pass of Dam-jau-er-la, where the cold is so 
intense that travellers have often fallen helpless, unable 
to move hand or foot, doomed to die. 

Yet, through this pass the travellers went, hungry 
always and weary and cold to the very bone, and at last 
they were through, in due time crossing the river Bo- 
Chu, whose waters divide the sacred province of U from 
the outer world. 

To Miss Taylor the knowledge that she had reached 
U was exhilarating, for it meant that she was almost at 
Lhasa; and she reckoned all the labours and danger 
as nought for the success which seemed within her 
grasp. It was a case of counting chickens before they 
were hatched. 

The cowardly Noga, not content with robbing and 
deserting his employer, had made a forced march which 
carried him well in advance of Miss Taylor, and, know- 
ing how jealously the Tibetans guarded the road to 
Lhasa, had given information to the officials that a 
white woman was coming. 

Arrangements were immediately made to hold up 
the traveller, who, when passing through a deep gorge, 
was suddenly confronted by two soldiers, who sprang 
from beliind rocks. 

There was little chance to parley, for they were 
taken prisoners straight away, and Miss Taylor and 
her two faithful servants found themselves hustled 
along to a village, where they were bundled into prison, 



A Journey towards Lhasa 213 

which was really a coffin-shaped hole in the ground. 
And to see that they did not escape, twenty fully-armed 
soldiers were placed on guard. 

Thus it was that in the early days of January, 1893, 
Miss Taylor knew that the end had come to her great 
endeavour : she had tried bravely to get to the heart of 
Tibet and had failed. 

It was heartbreaking, but the gallant lady was re- 
signed to the great disappointment ; it was not to be. . . . 

While she was a prisoner the news had been sent to 
Lhasa of her capture, and although instructions were 
given that she was to be well treated, still the confined 
space at her disposal was not at all well pleasing, and 
she was glad when the time came for her to be tried. 

For the Tibetans had a sense of justice, which made 
them seek to discover why this white lady had dared to 
try to reach the sacred city of Lhasa. Two days that 
trial lasted, and the verdict was — deportation. 

It was a disappointed missionary who turned her 
back on the goal she had set before herself, but she had 
the consolation that failure had come, not through any 
fault of her own, but through the treachery of one she 
had thought faithful. And it was a trying journey back 
to China, more trying than that into Tibet, for, although 
the Tibetan officials had showed themselves gentlemen 
by providing her with some necessaries. Miss Taylor 
and her servants had to travel through swampy country, 
across snow-covered mountains, in the depth of winter, 
without suitable food, sleeping on the bare ground at 
night without the shelter of a tent, and enshrouded with 
snow. So hard up were they for proper food that even 
the horses, on whose lives depended those of the travellers, 
had to be given tea with butter and cheese stirred in it 
in lieu of the goat's flesh they should have had — if Miss 
Taylor had been rich enough to buy it. 

But eventually the dreadful journey was over, and 



214 The Boy's Book of Pioneers 

Miss Taylor once more entered Tau-chau, nearly eight 
months after setting out, having achieved a splendid 
failure. Actually, she had gone to within three days' 
journey of the sacred city — far nearer than any traveller 
for very many years. She had done her best : that 
alone upheld her under the great disappointment. 

Yet she did not give up her work for the Tibetans 
who had turned her back when she went to do them 
good. A political event of great importance took place 
in 1893 : the Tibet-Sikkim Convention was entered into, 
by which Yatung, a town near the Indian frontier, was 
thrown open to British traders. 

Miss Taylor promptly became a trader at Yatung, 
and for many years laboured in the Tibetan city both 
as a dealer and a missionary. She made her trading the 
channel through which her missionary objects could be 
accomplished, and few pioneers have blazed so fruitful 
a trail as she did in the Forbidden Land. 



PIONEERS OF LIBERTY 

The Romantic Story of the Abolition of Slavery ' 

ONCE upon a time, as the old fairy tales say, 
traffic in human beings was regarded as a right 
and proper aspect of commerce. There were planta- 
tions, etc., to be worked, and labour — cheap labour — ■ 
was needed, and (we are speaking now of the modern 
world and not of the ancient, in which slavery of a 
different kind existed) the negroes of Africa were 
hunted, caught, and shipped across to the New World, 
doomed to bondage. 

Of the horrors of the slave trade we will not speak, 
except briefly to outline the conditions under which 
men, women and children were snatched from freedom 
and transported to the scenes of their enforced labour. 

There were many ways of obtaining the slaves : 
prisoners of war (war was often declared by a strong 
party against a weaker for the very purpose) were taken 
to the coast and shipped; or a rascally crew would, 
without declaring war, suddenly, in dead of night, raid 
a village, set fire to it, kill men who resisted, seize the 
younger ones and the women, and march them off to 
the coast. Fearful journeys were these : chained gangs 
marched through deserts and jungles, under glaring 
sun, badly fed, heavily laden (for the slave-raiders 
utilised them to carry their other merchandise) ; and 
the trail of the slaves was marked by little heaps — the 
bodies of those who, weak and sick, had been unable 
to keep up, and had dropped dead, or been freed from 
the gang to lie and die alone. 

2IS 



2i6 The Boy's Book of Pioneers 

Perhaps it was better to die thus, for those who 
reached the coast had the awful "middle passage" — 
the transportation across the ocean — before them. Ships 
reeking with dirt and disease were crammed with the 
human cargo. John Newton, one-time captain of a 
Liverpool slave-ship, and later a clergyman, said : " I 
have known a white man sent down to lay the slaves 
in rows to the greatest advantage, so that as little space 
as possible might be lost." Herded thus, shackled, 
scarce able to move, hungry, thirsty, with the irons 
chaffing their limbs, the slaves died by scores : every 
imaginable disease that comes from overcrowding seized 
the poor wretches, and death was preferable to life. . . . 
Revolt ? Yes, sometimes the slaves rose against their 
cruel masters, who would often go amongst them, and 
for little or no cause whip them mercilessly. And 
revolt meant war to the knife, for the traders used every 
effort to quell rebellion, and the negroes, knowing that 
failure to obtain freedom meant death, cared for nothing. 
Bloodhounds were sometimes kept posted at the hatches 
to tear to pieces the unfortunate wretch who dared show 
his face above deck ! 

All these things and worse did the human cargo 
have to undergo, and those who survived when port was 
reached were landed and sorted out — the weak and the 
sick from the strong and the hale — and then put up for 
sale. Sometimes they were scrambled for — a regular 
price for every one, a herding of them together, an 
opening of doors in the compound, a rush of "buyers" 
— each seizing the slaves he thought most valuable for 
the money — and the sale was over. Sometimes they 
were displayed for sale as a bazaar-keeper exhibits his 
wares, and purchasers would sort them out. Half dead, 
women were forced to their feet; little families who had 
been fortunate enough to stick together during the 
journey from their homes in far-off Africa would now be 



Pioneers of Liberty 217 

separated — babes wrenched from their mothers' breasts, 
husbands torn from their wives' sides; and the wail of 
the merchandise was as a dirge. . . . 

On the plantations they were worked hard and long, 
spurred on by taskmasters' whips. 

Slavery is one of the blackest blots on man's 
historical record : the wiping off of that blot is one of 
the most glorious achievements. 

The fight against the slave trade may be said to 
have begun in 1767, when Granville Sharp procured the 
release of a slave named Strong, who, beaten bar- 
barously by his master, was turned out of doors to die 
in the streets of Wapping. He did not die ; a surgeon 
named William Sharp tended him, and the doctor's 
brother, Granville, gave the poor African his protection, 
and when he recovered found him a situation. Two 
years later Strong's old master recognised him, and 
seizing him, sold him for thirty pounds. While Strong 
was awaiting shipment to the West Indies, Granville 
Sharp heard of what had happened, and brought the 
matter to the notice of the Lord Mayor of London, who 
ordered the slave to be released because he had been 
seized without a warrant. Overjoyed, the slave was 
about to go away when the captain of the slave ship 
about to take him to Jamaica arrived and cried : "Then 
I now seize him as my slave I " laying hands upon 
Strong as he did so. Immediately Sharp cried: "I 
charge you, in the name of the King, with an assault 
upon the person of Jonathan Strong, and all these are 
my witnesses." 

The captain relinquished his hold on Strong, and 
went away discomfited. 

That was the beginning of Sharp's fight against 
slavery, and he had to fight hard and long. Legal 
opinion had laid it down that a slave coming from the 
West Indies into Great Britain or Ireland did not 



2i8 The Boy's Book of Pioneers 

automatically become free, and that his master could 
force him to return again to the plantations. Sharp 
endeavoured to get eminent counsel to take the matter 
up and refute that opinion, but none would do so. He 
himself studied the law; two years he delved into the 
intricacies of our legal system, and in the end wrote 
with great hope in his heart : " God be thanked, there 
is nothing in any English law or statute, as far as I 
can make out, that can justify the enslaving of others." 
He awakened the interest of people by publishing a 
book on the subject, worked hard in prisons and dock- 
yards searching for captives and obtaining their release, 
and eventually, when an owner had seized his runaway 
slave, ill-treated him shamefully, and then placed him 
on board a ship to be sent to Jamaica to be sold, the 
liberator took the case to court, and won. For, in 1772, 
when this great event took place, twelve judges gave a 
unanimous verdict that "As soon as a slave sets foot on 
English territory he becomes free I " 

So far so good, but much more remained to be done. 
Sharp was up against the "vested interest" in the slave 
trade, and for another eleven years he toiled en- 
thusiastically at his self-imposed work. Then, in 1783, 
a case came before the courts in which the owners of a. 
slave ship claimed payment from the insurers for the 
value of slaves who had been drowned through being 
thrown overboard by the master of the ship in which 
they were being carried from Africa to Jamaica. Their 
case was that the captain had cast them overboard — all 
sickly ones — in order to economise on water. One 
hundred and thirty-two slaves were thus killed, and 
the underwriters contested the existence of the necessity 
alleged, and, alternatively, that even if it did exist, it 
was due to the improper conduct and ignorance of the 
master. 

When the case came on, Granville Sharp attended 



Pioneers of Liberty 219 

the court, and a shorthand writer with him took notes. 
The facts of the case were that the master of the vessel 
had deliberately thrown the slaves overboard because 
they were on the point of dying, and slaves who died 
natural deaths were the loss of the owners, whereas if 
it could be proved, so the master had argued, that the 
safety of the ship called for the severe measures he was 
about to adopt, then the underwriters would have to 
pay up to the hilt. Scarcity of water was made the 
excuse, but actually there was no scarcity. The first 
trial ended in favour of the owners, but Sharp flooded 
the country with details of the infamous episode, which 
caused a great revulsion of feeling in England, and 
brought many helpers in his great cause. An organisa- 
tion, the Anti-Slavery Committee, was formed to combat 
the evil by educating the public. Thomas Clarkson, 
who was to take so great a part in the abolition of 
slavery, wrote a prize essay on the slave trade, which 
brought him into touch with many members of the 
Anti-Slavery Committee ; he investigated its ramifica- 
tions in every direction, so also did many other men, 
and in the end an Anti-Slavery Society was formed, 
including amongst its members Granville Sharp, he who 
had first set the ball of liberty rolling. This Society 
requested William Wilberforce, who had been impressed 
by the labours and revelations of Clarkson, to bring the 
matter before Parliament — he was then member for 
Hull — and he, after making investigations on his own 
account, determined to give notice of his intention of 
bringing the matter forward in the Commons. 

Then the vested interests were aroused I A storm 
of indignation broke upon the head of Wilberforce. 
The slave merchants cried aloud at the injustice, even 
the inhumanity, of this attempt to put down a trade 
that was necessary and humane — so they had the 
effrontery to assert before a Privy Council ! 



220 The Boy's Book of Pioneers 

But Wilberforce and his friends went on tlieir un- 
daunted way, and interested Pitt in their movement. 
Then Wilberforce became ill — sick almost unto death; 
he recovered, but, while he was still hovering between 
life and death, Pitt, in the House of Commons, moved 
a resolution to consider the question of the slave trade 
early in the following session. This was on May 9, 
1788. Early the following year Wilberforce dragged 
his way to Westminster, and on May 12 led a debate 
on the slave trade. Burke, Fox, and Pitt took part in 
that debate, and all England rang with the story of the 
horrors of the slave trade as painted by these past- 
masters of oratory. 

Indignation, enthusiasm for freedom, disgust at the 
disgrace — these things came and died away in the face 
of the opposition of the men who had "money in it." 
Parliament shelved the matter, pending more evidence, 
but Wilberforce and his brave band of workers fought 
on. In 1791 he was defeated in the Commons by 163 
to 88. George II. opposed him; his life was threatened, 
and he had to be guarded by armed men. The French 
revolution was distracting attention, but in season and 
out of season Wilberforce pressed the matter on the 
attention of the House, taking no set-back as final, 
until, on February 23, 1807, that for which he and his 
comrades had fought was achieved. 

The division on the second reading of the Abolition 
of Slavery Bill gave a majority of 283 to 16 for Wilber- 
force. The slave trade was abolished, importation of 
fresh slaves was forbidden, and slave ships were 
reckoned among piratical craft. 

And yet victory was not complete. The slave trade 
was abolished, but the slave remained. Something must 
be done to set free those people who were in bondage, 
even as so much had been done to make traffic in slaves 
illegal. Wilberforce was worn out by his exertions, but 



Pioneers of Liberty 221 

Thomas Fowell Buxton took up his mantle : he spoke 
impassionately in the House. "Extinction of slavery" 
was what he aimed at, "in nothing less than the whole 
of the British Dominions." And the virulent opposition 
that had been heaped upon Wilberforce was now poured 
upon Buxton. He was deserted by the Government, 
opposed by the merchants, and yet won through, for on 
August I, 1833, the day of emancipation came, and 
700,000 slaves were proclaimed free in the British 
Dominions, at a cost of twenty million pounds. 

And every farthing of it well spent. 

Great Britain had done with slavery, and the 
liberators now turned their attention to the extinction of 
the slave trade everywhere. 

How well the enthusiasts worked is evident when it 
is stated that in 1841 France, Austria, Russia and 
Prussia entered into a treaty adopting the English laws 
against slavery, though certain countries still reaped 
rich harvests from the traffic in this human merchandise. 
Africa, the great Dark Continent, was besmirched by the 
blot of the slave trade. "This hateful trade," wrote 
Livingstone, who in his wonderful explorations toiled 
hard at the problem, "is the curse of Africa, which our 
brave explorers, and our no less brave public men at 
home, have nobly tried to remove a trade by means 
of which intestine wars are increased, useful industries 
abolished, peaceful villages burned, valuable tracts of 
country depopulated, the progress of civilisation hope- 
lessly hindered, and the spread of Christianity rendered 
an impossibility." 

In other chapters of this book we have told of the 
explorers to whom Livingstone referred; in fact, it may 
be said that most of the expeditions into the heart of 
Africa during the 'sixties and thereabouts had, as 
amongst their objects, the discovery of some way to 
wipe out the blot on the continent. 



222 The Boy's Book of Pioneers 

Besides the emancipation of the slave, as the result 
of public agitation and legal procedure, there is the 
freeing of the black labourer by force of arms. What 
Great Britain achieved peacefully, the United States 
only obtained after a terrible Civil War. 

We have to go a long way back to find the first 
glimmerings of the light that finally blazed forth — ^at 
the cannon's mouth. The importation of negroes into 
Virginia was protested against by the Colonials, who 
even passed laws against it, which the English Parlia- 
ment would not ratify; and the year in which Gran- 
ville Sharp obtained the legal dictum that the slave was 
free as soon as he landed on English soil, the Governor 
of Virginia was commanded, "upon pain of the highest 
displeasure, to assent to no law by which the importa- 
tion of slaves should be in any respect prohibited or 
obstructed." 

Many of the fathers of the American Republic were 
opposed to the slave trade, and the Declaration of 
Independence began : 

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all 
men are created equal; that they are endowed by their 
Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among 
these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." 

And yet, so powerful were the slave interests in 
Carolina and Georgia, that when the Republic was pro- 
claimed, and it was proposed to forbid the importation 
of slaves, the Northern States had to compromise, and 
the slave trade went on. Although in 1820 the United 
States declared the slave trade piracy, it was not until 
1862 that the first slave-trader was convicted and hanged. 

While the South combined in its policy of holding 
slaves, the Northern States declared themselves "free." 
New States entered the Union — some "free," some 
"slave," and by 1819 the proportions were equal — eleven 
to eleven. 



Pioneers of Liberty 223 

That behind it all there was more than the question 
of slavery is undeniable, as the following statements by 
an American writer will show : 

"Economic conditions created a divergence between 
the choice made by the North and that made by the 
South. The North was a manufacturing, the South an 
agricultural community. The North lived by machinery, 
the South by slaves. At the beginning there was no 
reason to expect such a divergence ; one section might 
as well have been expected to be a mechanical centre as 
the other. Slavery had died out in the North, and was 
expected to die out in the South. But Eli Whitney's 
invention of the cotton gin in 1793 made slave labour 
profitable and turned the South permanently in the 
agricultural direction. 

"The conflict of interests between North and South 
was almost immediately evident. The manufacturing 
North needed a tariff; this taxed the South for the 
North's benefit. It was a contest between two industrial 
systems. The first blow was aimed by the North, when 
the growth of the slave-labour system was proscribed by 
the Missouri Compromise. This prohibited slavery 
north of the latitude of 36 degrees 30 minutes, and thus 
circumscribed the increase of the South's industrial 
system. The South retaliated with nullification, an 
attempt to cripple the tariff system on which the North 
depended, and that was when the Civil War began. It 
continued for forty years, and ended in bloodshed. 

"The Northern population grew and became 
enormous, so that the North was sure of controlling the 
House. The South clung desperately to the Senate, 
and when new States were admitted it insisted on off- 
setting every free State with a slave State. But it was 
a losing game. The end was in sight when California, 
admitted on the supposition that it would be a slave 
State, turned out to be a free one ; the discovery of gold 



224 The Boy's Book of Pioneers 

had brought to her a great rush of Northern men. 
The balance of power was gone ; it was only a question 
of a few years when the North would be in control of 
the whole Government. The time came ten years after 
the admission of California, when Lincoln was elected 
President on a platform declaring against the extension 
of slavery. South Carolina seceded and dragged nearly 
all the rest of the South after her." 

There are a few men, pioneers of freedom, whose 
work we must briefly touch upon : they are William 
Lloyd Garrison, John Brown, of Harper's Ferry, and 
Abraham Lincoln. 

Garrison was a born reformer — one of those men of 
humble birth (he was a shoemaker at the outset of his 
career) who would sweep clean the foul places of 
social life. He wanted to kill intemperance ; he wanted 
to make wars impossible ; and he wanted, passionately, 
to put down slavery. And he was willing to suffer for 
his ideals. He spent a term in jail for having made a 
"gross and malicious libel" that a ship had sailed from 
Newburyport to Orleans with seventy-five slaves chained 
"between decks." Then, when he was released, he 
started the Liberator, a paper with a purpose — a purpose 
carried through with all the fire of the man's nature, 
with such energy that its suppression was demanded and 
a reward offered for the arrest and conviction of 
Garrison, who managed to escape to England in time 
to avoid capture. 

While in England he saw the passage of the 
Emancipation Bill, and was present at Wilberforce's 
funeral in Westminster Abbey; and he must have 
gained added inspiration in his great cause from his 
intercourse with the pioneers of liberty in England, who 
had fought their fight, and won. When he returned to 
America he straightway formed an American Anti- 
Slavery Society, kept his Liberator going, lectured, ran 




The death of John Brown, a pioneer for liberty (5^"^ /. 229) 



Pioneers of Liberty 225 

the risk of assassination, and sought to arouse public 
opinion in every possible way, with the object of obtain- 
ing immediate emancipation by peaceful measures. 
Before his house his opponents had erected a gallows; 
the mail carrying copies of his paper were raided, and 
every possible means was used to hinder the circulation 
of literature that might bring freedom to thousands of 
poor wretches. He bore insults bravely, cared not a jot 
for the attempts made on his life, but held on with his 
campaign, sowing seeds which were to bear fruit, 
though not before they had been fertilised by the blood 
of many. . . . 

Perhaps to most people the name of John Brown, of 
Harper's Ferry, is the best known, apart from Abraham 
Lincoln, in connection with the abolition of slavery in 
America. It is easy to understand why : the following 
story is the reason : 

He was a deeply religious man of the Puritan type, 
with a passion as great as Garrison's for the day when 
all men should be free. He regarded himself as "called 
of God to action against slavery," and in 1849 he trekked 
to the Adirondacks to a farm on which he proposed to 
teach negroes the art of cultivation. It was not very 
successful ; but Brown found a larger field of labour in 
Kansas, where four of his sons had settled during the 
days when free staters and slave staters were fighting 
to gain the new territory to their respective sides in the 
Union. When John Brown arrived in Kansas, bring- 
ing his sons arms which they sorely needed now 
(although they had thought to be peaceful settlers in the 
new land), he found everything in turmoil. Meetings 
were being held everywhere, some for, some against, 
the "free state" idea. In Missouri there were secret 
societies, which did slave propaganda work in Kansas 
under the guise of real settlers, and, when the election 
of a delegate to the Congress took place, hundreds of 
p 



226 The Boy's Book of Pioneers 

them, armed to the teeth, were at the polling stations, 
and prevented free-soilers from voting, a procedure 
adopted also when the first "Territorial Legislature" 
was elected. Then there were no fewer than five 
thousand Missourians, fully armed, in Kansas, and by 
their aid the Kansas Legislature was turned into a 
slave territory. Something like five-sixths of the votes 
were fraudulent ! and the President would not listen to 
any argument put forward by the bona fide citizens. 
Laws were enacted in favour of slave-holding, and 
making it a punishable offence to assist slaves to escape 
or even to write against slave-holding I 

Anarchy prevailed; free-soilers were murdered, their 
settlements raided; free-soilers, among them John 
Brown, organised armed resistance to the Fugitive Slave 
Law which had been adopted by the Legislature; there 
were many miniature battles and some more serious 
ones, in which Brown took a leading part against the 
aggressors; and at last Kansas succeeded in shaking off 
the incubus by the overwhelming vote of its citizens, 
who threw over the slave Constitution. 

While all this was going on. Brown had been hard 
at work in Kansas and elsewhere. He had larger aims 
than the freeing of men in one territory : he aimed at the 
freedom of every slave in the country, and with this in 
mind he instituted a training school in Iowa, where he 
intended to drill young men to help him rouse the slaves 
to peaceful rebellion, and lead them away to places where 
they would be safe pending the granting of freedom by 
legislation. A big scheme — too big, as it turned out, 
and yet Brown did not give up. He went to Canada, 
where he hoped to obtain the support of the 40,000 
escaped slaves, and again failed. 

He returned to Kansas, and he determined to pay 
back the raiding Missouri slave-hunters in their own 
coin. At the head of a small band he made a dash 



Pioneers of Liberty 227 

across the boundary and seized eleven slaves, whom he 
carried away to Canada, despite the reward of 3,250 
dollars set on his head and the penalties of the Fugitive 
Slave Act. 

Soon after this there took place the final scenes in 
the strenuous life of the great pioneer. He had not 
given up his idea of gathering the slaves together and 
leading them to sanctuary of the mountains, and, for 
this purpose, he resolved to raid the United States 
armoury at Harper's Ferry, in Jefferson Q)unty, 
Virginia. The arms were to be supplied to the fleeing 
slaves to protect themselves with on the journey to 
freedom. Brown set to work like the commander of an 
army : he took a farm a few miles from Harper's Ferry, 
went on surveying expeditions to prepare the way for 
his movement into the mountains, set up a depot with 
stores, gathered his enthusiastic band together, and on 
the night of October 16, 1859, all was ready. 

The gallant little band of about twenty set off with 
a one-horse wagon carrying weapons, having taken the 
precaution of cutting telegraph wires, so that news of 
the rising might be delayed. 

At ten o'clock Brown led his few men across the 
railway bridge over the Potomac, after having seized 
the man on guard there, rushed the armoury, and cap- 
tured the sentries. And the people of Harper's Ferry 
awoke to a full-blooded rebellion, for Brown was joined 
by hundreds of sympathisers; outside the barricaded 
armoury were pickets, who arrested every citizen who 
ventured abroad. Brown quickly sent messengers south 
with arms for the negroes, whom he urged to come out 
and help him in this his fight for their liberty. 

But the slaves did not rise, and Harper and his com- 
paratively small force were left alone. The citizens of 
Harper's Ferry eventually gathered together, and tried 
to rush the armoury, and there ensued a fight which 



228 The Boy's Book of Pioheers 

could have but one end. The building could not be 
permanently held, and many of Brown's men tried to 
escape. The ringleader, however, and those who re- 
mained with him, retreated to the engine-house, where 
they remained all through the Monday and the next 
night, trying to patch up their wounded, and keeping 
a sharp watch on the prisoners they had taken. 

The townspeople were waiting for reinforcements, 
which came with Colonel Robert E. Lee early on Tues- 
day morning. The soldiers attacked the engine-house, 
and Brown and his men, who now realised that the end 
was come, refused to surrender, and put up a valiant 
defence. The attackers battered in the door, and after a 
sharp tussle Brown and his comrades were captured. 
Brown was badly wounded in several places, his two 
sons were killed, and the floor of the engine-house held 
many other martyrs to the cause of liberty. 

Brown was thrust into prison to await trial, though 
he had not long to wait. The slaveowners were furious, 
and they demanded instant trial, and gave the prisoner 
no adequate time to have his defence got up. On 
October 27 he was placed before the grand jury, but the 
case without any doubt was prejudiced by the Governor, 
who said that Brown was a murderer, and ought to be 
hanged — which was the death-knell of Brown, because 
the Governor had the right to grant pardon after 
conviction. 

Brown was carried into court on a pallet — he was 
too ill to stand owing to his wounds — and when the 
verdict was passed upon him — a. verdict of death — he 
raised himself and said : 

"Gentlemen, make an end of slavery, or slavery will 
make an end of you ! " 

Such was the end of Brown's attempt at freeing the 
slaves of the South. For years he had bent every effort 
to bring about the great liberation, and had at last given 



Pioneers of Liberty 229 

up his life, having failed. At least, so the superficial 
observer in those days would have said, but far from 
that, Brown had succeeded better by his failure than 
could have been the case if he had succeeded in rousing 
the negroes. An historian of the United States has 
written ; 

"Abolitionist principles in the North received an 
immense accession of strength from this act of 
John Brown. The coming Presidential election was 
determined beforehand by that Virginian execution : the 
victory of Abraham Lincoln dates from the defeat of 
Harper's Ferry. Had Brown succeeded for a time — 
had he raised the negroes and inaugurated a servile war 
with all its horrors — he would have failed utterly. It 
was a good thing that he failed in the minor degree, and 
that his blood, and not the blood of Virginian slave- 
holders, was the germinating seed. His body slept 
quietly in its Northern grave, but his spirit went abroad 
over the land, making real and permanent the good to 
which he aspired, and for which he died." 

We now come to the last pioneer of liberty with 
whose work we can deal here : Abraham Lincoln, who 
rose from the log hut to the President's chair. When 
he was nominated he outlined his attitude towards 
slavery, and it was the patriot who spoke. He said : 

"A house divided against itself cannot stand. I 
believe this government cannot endure permanently 
half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to 
be dissolved — I do not expect the house to fall — but I 
do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all 
one thing or all the other." 

An American writer has said (see page 223) that the 
war between the States was not fought for slavery or 
freedom, but had its roots in something deeper than 
that. Nevertheless, the truth is that the secessionists 
knew that by secession they would retain their slaves, 



230 The Boy's Book of Pioneers 

while those among the Northern States who valued 
freedom knew that even although the South remained in 
the Union, on the old footing, there could be no peace. 

Within a week of the time when Lincoln assumed 
office the Confederate States sent their commissioners to 
Washington to arrange for secession, which was refused. 
The Confederates retaliated by bombarding Fort 
Sumter, near Charlestown (April, 1861), and the North 
declared war. We cannot follow the story of the cruel 
internecine struggle — it is not within the scope of this 
book — but while his armies were fighting — now losing, 
now winning — Lincoln was thinking deeply about the 
slavery question. His opinions are made clear in the 
following letter to Horace Greely, and there again the 
patriot stands forth — the man who would save his 
country if he could. 

"My paramount object," he wrote, "is to save the 
Union, and not either to save or destroy slavery. If I 
could save the Union without freeing any slave I would 
do it; if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would 
do it ; and if I could do it by freeing some and leaving 
others alone I would also do that. What I do about 
slavery and the coloured race I do because I believe it 
helps to save this Union, and what I forbear I forbear 
because I do not believe it would help to save the 
Union." 

There you have the pioneer, who saw clearly in 
which direction salvation for his country lay. And then 
came the time when he saw that the slaves could save 
the Union which, fighting for its own rights, was also 
fighting for theirs ; he realised that unless the North had 
men it would lose; and defeat meant not only the 
breakup of the Union, but also the lasting bondage of 
the slaves; so, on September 22, 1862, he issued his 
Emancipation Proclamation, which set forth that on 
January i, 1863, all persons held as slaves within any 



Pioneers of Liberty 231 

state whose people were in rebellion against the United 
States, should be then, thenceforward and for ever, 
free. 

Later on, in his address to Congress, he said : 

"In giving freedom to the slave we assure freedom 
to the free," and justified his proclamation as a "fit and 
necessary war measure for suppressing the rebellion." 

The North now found its forces augmented by- 
thousands of negroes, of whom, during the fighting, 
nearly 70,000 died on the altar of freedom, with 
hundreds of thousands of white men. 

Beneath the political currents there was the deep 
running water of a passion for liberty, which was there 
all the time, and only needed the proclamation of 
Lincoln to bring it to the surface. 

Lincoln died by an assassin's bullet; but the North 
won in the war, and four millions of slaves hailed the 
dawning of the day of liberty ; and two years after 
hostilities had ceased the negroes were enfranchised and 
made citizens of the United States, while eventually the 
Constitution was amended and America declared that 
"Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a 
punishment for crime where the party shall have been 
duly convicted, shall exist within the United States or 
any place subject to their jurisdiction." 

America was a land of the free, and it had become 
such because of the strivings of hundreds of unselfish, 
high-minded, courageous souls, who had dared every- 
thing because they believed in the rights of man — white 
or black. They cut a pathway through traditions, 
through prejudices, through all the barriers of vested 
interests, along which marched the procession of 
liberated men and women and children into the light 
of a day they had dreamed of but never thought to see. 



OPENING UP THE GREAT RIVERS OF 
AUSTRALIA 

The Romantic Story of Early Days •' Down Under " 

AUSTRALIA, the Britain "down under," was dis- 
■^^- covered by the Dutch in the fifteenth century, 
and given by them tlie name of New Holland. In 1770 
Captain Cook, the famous navigator, explored its eastern 
coast. We have no space to detail the story of Cook's 
voyages into the Southern Seas, and must content our- 
selves with saying that his pioneer work bore fruit — of 
a queer kind. The Mother Country in those days wanted 
to get rid of its undesirables, and acting upon the report 
presented by Cook, decided that the country, which, 
because it reminded him of his native land, Wales, he 
had named New South Wales, was the very place they 
had been looking for to dump their unwanted. So, at a 
spot which, owing to its amazing fertility, was named 
Botany Bay, it was resolved to form a penal settlement, 
with the object of "ridding the Mother Country from 
time to time of the yearly increasing number of prisoners 
who were accumulating in the gaols, of affording a 
proper place for the punishment of criminals, and of 
forming a free colony out of the materials which the 
reformed prisoners would supply, in addition to the 
families of free emigrants who might be induced to 
settle in that country." 

Which, to say the least, was about the funniest way 
ever conceived of colonising a new possession ! 

So it was that in 1788 a fleet sailed for the sub-con- 
tinent, having a thousand souls aboard, three-quarters 

232 



opening up Australia 233 

of whom were convicts. Captain Phillip, who com- 
manded the expedition, discovered, north of Botany 
Bay, a haven which he named Port Jackson, and there 
he disembarked his first Australian colonials. Tents 
were pitched, and convict and free men laboured at 
clearing the ground and building wooden huts on the 
site of what is now the fine city of Sydney. That settle- 
ment on the shores of Port Jackson was the first home 
of Britishers in the southern continent, and, despite its 
handicapped conditions, Australia has prospered; it is 
a land of free men and democratic government — a land 
with a great destiny. 

Exploration inland began almost immediately after 
the founding of the settlement at Port Jackson : the 
Hawkesbury River was discovered, and explored for 
sixty miles or so along its course; in 1829 a new settle- 
ment was made at the head of King George's Sound, 
on the Swan River ; the country round about was named 
the Colony of Western Australia. The founding of this 
colony was begun under very unfavourable circum- 
stances : a storm was prevailing at the time the settlers 
had to land, and the ships were badly knocked about, 
being dashed upon the rocks and smashed, the people 
only getting ashore with great difficulty. A discon- 
solate crowd, hungry, shivering, wet through, with 
live stock, household furniture (including pianos), tools, 
ploughs — all the things they had brought with them — 
were heaped up on the lonely shore, and the colony 
had begun ! 

It says much for those settlers that they set to work 
(except a few who took the first opportunity presented 
by the arrival of a ship to shake the dust of Australia 
from their feet) and stuck to that to which they had ^ 
put their hands, and won through. 

The pioneers of Victoria, so named when the colony 
was disunited from New South Wales in 1838, settled 



234 The Boy's Book of Pioneers 

on the site of Melbourne, erecting for themselves a few 
rude huts, and labouring hard and doggedly. When 
the colony was instituted, better buildings, still only of 
wood, were run up, and a church built, and in thirty 
years the city of Melbourne had come into existence. 

The natives of the continent were the lowest type of 
human beings, nomadic, quarrelsome, cannibalistic folk 
— not the finest kind of people in whose country to 
settle. 

The early settlers began the great Australian 
industry, sheep-farming, which has given the continent 
its name of the "Land of the Golden Fleece," and the 
first explorations of the land were for the purpose of 
finding out as much as possible of its water system, for, 
being a tropical country, the question of water and 
pasturage was a very serious one, and engaged the 
attention of the wise men. 

The way inland was barred by the Blue Mountains, 
a most formidable range; but when, from 1809 onwards 
a severe drought set in, it was felt that either new 
pastures would have to be found or the colony perish. 
For these was no grass, little water, and stock were 
dying off wholesale. 

So, in 1813 (May 11) an expedition went out, and 
the names of the men who were to make an effort to 
save the colony from disaster were Blaxland, Went- 
worth, and Lawson. Theirs was a truly arduous 
journey. They followed the course of a ridge which 
seemed to divide the waters of the Warrgomba and 
Grose Rivers. "For a month they were away, and 
during that time they suffered dreadful hardships from 
lack of water, cutting a way through scrub and crossing 
difficult ridges, but when they returned they brought 
with them the welcome news that they had crossed the 
hills of the impassable Blue Mountains, on the other 
side of which were well-watered pastures." 



Opening up Australia 235 

This was good news indeed. Governor Macquarie 
let no time be lost in following up the discovery, and in 
November of the same year Assistant-Surveyor Evans 
led a party over the track made by the previous pioneers, 
and going westward for three weeks, passed across 
large plains, interspersed with hills and valleys, with 
many streams and ponds, and possessing a rich soil. 
Evans's report was that the place had a capacity for 
every demand which the colony might have for an ex- 
tension of the village and pasture lands for a century 
to come — a very sanguine opinion I 

Governor Macquarie immediately gave orders for a 
road to be driven across the Blue Mountains, and when 
that was done, rode in his cabriolet to the site of the 
present city of Bathurst (May 7, 18 15). 

When Evans was on his exploration he discovered 
a large river, called by the blacks Wambool, but re- 
named by him Macquarie, in honour of the Governor. 

Thus we see that the opening up of Australia was 
the result, not merely of a desire on the part of explorers 
and scientists to undertake the geographical search as 
such, but because it was necessary, if the new colony 
was to flourish, that new fields in a very literal sense 
must be found, for a very practical reason. 

When the Macquarie was discovered, interest was 
naturally aroused, and from that date the exploration 
proper of inland Australia may be said to have begun. 
As in so many other countries, the rivers were the great 
lure, and we find the story of the quest of the African 
rivers duplicated in a measure in Australia. The out- 
standing fact about the rivers of the "down under," 
however, was that the pioneers mostly discovered the 
source before they did the mouths, and the line of 
exploration went down the river instead of up. 

After the discovery of the Macquarie, further 
attempts to follow it brought to light another river, two 



236 The Boy's Book of Pioneers 

days' journey to the westward; this was named the 
Lachlan. 

And these two rivers flowed to the west; but where 
did they end ? That was the question in the minds of 
everyone interested, which was practically everyone in 
the new colony. 

It was in 1817 that the Surveyor-General Oxley 
headed an expedition to explore the course of the 
Lachlan River. Part of the journey was made down 
the river in boats, but very often the party had to 
travel by land owing to the "snags" which obstructed 
progress. The sluggish river went west on through 
uninteresting, marshy country, and at last, to the dis- 
may of Oxley, apparently terminated in a great swamp 
of reeds ! He abandoned his boats, and struck out 
across country to the south-west in the hope of finding 
other rivers, or perhaps of reaching the coast in that 
direction. Whereas before there had been too much 
water, now there was too little, and the explorers had a 
hard time of it in forcing their way through the myall 
scrub. At last they gave up in despair, and when 
within 23 miles of the Murrumbidgee, they turned off, 
and reached the Lachlan again. 

Though provisions were short, they decided to follow 
the river in the hope of finding more about its course. 
There were plenty of fish in it, and inland were in- 
numerable birds, although the country seemed very 
desolate. The journey was as difficult as the previous 
one, and ended again at a swamp filled with reeds. It 
was very disappointing, especially after they had traced 
the river 500 miles (1,200 including all its windings), 
and Oxley came to the conclusion that the Lachlan 
terminated in a great inland sea or lake, whose shores 
were unapproachable. 

He therefore turned back and went in search of the 
Macquarie, and after a thrilling journey, in which 



Opening up Australia 237 

horses and men suffered severely, he came to it, crossed 
many of its tributaries, and found the country round 
about very promising. 

Having achieved as much, the explorers returned to 
Bathurst, not altogether satisfied, however, for Oxley 
had not a very high opinion of the country he had 
explored. 

He had hoped that if the Lachlan did not end in his 
hypothetical lake, it swept across the Continent to the 
western coast; but Captain King, who, when Oxley re- 
turned to Bathurst, had just come back from a survey 
of that coast, reported that no great river emptied itself 
there. 

This upset many theories, and Oxley was driven 
back on his idea of a lake ; and in the following year 
went out again, this time following the Macquarie. One 
section of the expedition went by boat, the other follow- 
ing on the bank. 

More disappointment. The explorers, after passing 
through dreadfully flat country, and forming a depot at 
Mount Harris, were eventually compelled to turn east 
by the vast reed-filled swamp that barred progress. 
Oxley now made for the eastern coast, and on the way 
obtained much useful information as to vegetation, 
streams and mountains, the great range of these latter 
being in many places 6,000 to 7,000 feet high, which 
the explorers had to cross with much hard labour, 
finally reaching Port Macquoine, thence going down 
coast to Sydney. 

There were various explorations after this; and in 
1822 the Murrumbidgee was discovered and explored, 
and again explored by Hume and Hovell in 1824. Dur- 
ing this journey the explorers sighted the head-waters 
of a river, which was name Hume, afterwards re- 
christened the Murray. A most amazing journey was 
this of Hume's, the explorer having to hack a way 



238 The Boy's Book of Pioneers 

through scrub, make his own boats, climb range after 
range of hills. It paid for all the toil and hardship, 
for a great tract of valuable country was discovered. 

After Hume, Sturt, who took up the work left un- 
finished by Oxley, and when he followed in the latter's 
track he discovered that the Macquarie did not end in a 
swamp, for the country round about was drought- 
stricken, whereas, when Oxley had been there, there had 
been a superabundance of rain. 

This fluctuation of climatic conditions caused a good 
deal of misapprehension of the state of inland Australia 
in those early days, but, as subsequent explorations 
proved, the interior was none too well supplied with 
water, nor was there much in the way of animal life — no 
big game, for instance, to be hunted in jungles; indeed, 
there were few forests for game to roam about in. 

But when, in 1829, Sturt arrived at the place where 
Oxley had turned back, he decided to push farther on. 
The expedition consisted of himself, Hamilton Hume, a 
couple of British soldiers, a number of " ticket-of-leave " 
men, horses and bullocks, and a small boat, which was 
trundled through the country on wheels; and while 
Hume, with one section, swerved round the wide ex- 
panse of what Oxley had described as marsh, but which 
was now a shallow ocean of reeds, Sturt himself en- 
deavoured to drive a path through. Sturt was un- 
successful, but better reward attended the efforts of the 
other party, who came back in great excitement with 
news that they had discerned in the distance a sheet of 
water which wound its way through the country as far 
as the eye could see. 

Then the expedition went forward — slowly, labori- 
ously, cutting their way through the reed-bed, which 
impeded progress at every step. The drought had dried 
up all the water-holes; for a long time the men had 
scarcely anything to drink, and it was a thirst-mad com- 



Opening up Australia 239 

pany which, at the end of January, 1829, came to the 
bank of a mighty river. They stood on the high cliffs 
which hemmed in the river, "seventy to eighty yards 
broad, evidently very deep, and literally covered with 
pelicans and wild fowl " ; and they could have cried with 
joy, for there was — water I 

Yes, water, but what water it was ! Down the cliffs 
the gasping men clambered, and scooped up the shining 
liquid, only to find that it was salt ! 

Thirsty almost to the point of endurance, the weary 
explorers turned their backs on this river, which Sturt 
named the Darling, and hurriedly retreated to the Mac- 
quarie, where supplies had been sent to await their 
return, and, having refreshed themselves, doggedly set 
out again, this time in a north-easterly direction. 
Eventually, they reached the then dry bed of the Castle- 
reagh River, which they followed, pushing on until 
they once more came to the Darling, at a place ninety 
miles beyond the spot where they first set eyes upon it. 
The saline quality of the water was still such as to make 
it undrinkable, and the explorers were badly dis- 
appointed, because otherwise they would have pene- 
trated farther inland. As it was, they went back. 

The discovery of the Darling River was a most im- 
portant one for Australia, but more information regard- 
ing it — its length, its course, and so forth — was very 
desirable, so in the early part of 1830 Sturt once more 
essayed the task of following it. Moreover, there was a 
great question to be settled. The Darling, the Murrum- 
bidgee, and probably the Hume (or Murray), all flow- 
ing west, seemed to form one great river, which must 
have an outlet somewhere — but where ? 

Sturt decided to go by a different route on this new 
expedition, and, embarking his expedition in boats, he 
went down the Murrumbidgee River. The whole 
country seemed to be most discouraging from a 



240 The Boy's Book of Pioneers 

colonist's point of view : arid plains stretched on either 
side of the river, which itself was filled with reeds that 
impeded progress — so badly, indeed, that there seemed 
to be very little prospect of being able to carve a way 
through. 

Sturt refused to give up without making a strong 
effort, and, leaving some of his party behind, began to 
push on through the reeds, and after a time found that 
they grew less dense, so that the boats could travel at 
a fair rate of speed. Indeed, after a time, the river, 
which was hemmed in by high banks, and considerably 
narrowing in, became very swift, so that very good 
progress was made. 

Eventually the Murrumbidgee ran into another river, 
larger by far than itself; it was the Murray (so called 
in honour of the chief of the Colonial Department). 
Sturt guessed this was the same river that Hume had 
discovered nearer the mountains, and he resolved to 
follow it as far as was possible. 

His troubles commenced almost immediately — not 
troubles owing to water or lack of food, but occasioned 
by the attitude of the aboriginals, the black men, who 
resented the coming of the whites. 

As the explorers went down the Murray, here and 
there they could see natives on the banks, and presently 
they came to the junction of the Darling and the 
Murray, where a sandbank stretched over halfway 
across. Here they found a band of over four hundred 
blacks waiting for them, all well armed, and flourishing 
their weapons in a most hostile manner. Their gesticu- 
lations told Sturt that they were by no means friendly 
disposed towards the white men. 

He decided to adopt stern measures. Standing up 
in his whale-boat, he made signs to the natives, telling 
them to clear off. He might as well have signalled to a 
mountain to move for all the notice the natives took. 



opening up Australia 241 

Still flourishing their weapons, they yelled defiance at 
the travellers, and Sturt raised his gun. 

What might have happened had he fired it no one 
knows, but just as he was about to do so one of his 
companions drew his attention to the fact that a second 
party of natives was hurrying towards them on the 
opposite bank. "Turning round," Sturt wrote, "I 
observed four men at the top of their speed. The fore- 
most of them, as soon as he got ahead of the boat, threw 
himself from a considerable height into the water. He 
struggled across the channel to the sandbank, and in an 
incredibly short space of time stood in front of the savage 
against whom my aim had been directed. Seizing him 
by the throat, he pushed him backwards, and forcing 
all who were in the water upon the bank, he trod its 
margin with a vehemence and agitation that were ex- 
ceedingly striking. At one moment pointing to the 
bank boat, at another shaking his clenched hand in the 
faces of the most forward, and stamping with passion 
on the sand ; his voice, that was at first distinct, was lost 
in hoarse murmurs." 

This man was chief of the four hundred natives who 
had tried to bar the progress of the expedition, and his 
advent upon the scene put a stop to their hostility. The 
explorers, who had watched the scene, wondering what 
it might mean, forgot all about steering their boat, 
which went downstream of its own accord. It was a 
most fortunate escape — a narrow shave from disaster. 

Such an occurrence, however, made them very 
cautious as they went on their way down the river, and 
they took good care to prepare their path before them 
by sending on in advance native messengers of tribes 
with whom they were able to get into touch, to give 
warning to other tribes that white men were coming — 
white men who intended no harm, but rather good. 
This plan was altogether successful, and on February 9, 

Q 



242 The Boy's Book of Pioneers 

1830, a month after leaving their companions the other 
side of the reeds on the Murrumbidgee, Sturt and his 
comrades ran into the wide, shallow lake into which 
the Murray pours its waters. They tried to get their 
whale-boat across, but could not ; and then, hearing the 
surf pounding, they knew that they had reached the 
south coast, having traced the great Murray along its 
course from the confluence with the Murrumbidgee. 

They discovered that a sandbank cut off the lake 
from the sea, and they had to haul their boat across this 
to the coast, where they realised that it was the sea. 
They hoped they might be fortunate enough to find a 
ship of some kind in which they might sail round the 
coast to New South Wales home. 

Unfortunately for them, no ship was to be seen, and, 
after having achieved so much, their only hope of return 
was by the same route which they had come. They 
had barely sufficient provisions left to do this journey 
on, and they were weary with much travelling. What 
the return trip up the river would be like they hardly 
dared to imagine, for the journey down had been fairly 
rapid owing to the swiftness of the river, and, of course, 
it would be proportionately more difficult to ascend 
going against the current. 

However, there was nothing for it, and the explorers 
took to their boats again, pulled at their oars with a will, 
and set off on a voyage which took them a couple of 
months to do. It was even more perilous than the journey 
down, for the natives — fresh parties of the nomads, 
without doubt — were openly at one time, cunningly 
at others, hostile, and the travellers needed all their 
patience and doggedness, all their endurance. One man 
went mad; and after truly herculean labours, the rest 
gave in, and drew the boat ashore, unable to go any 
farther; and they were still ninety miles from their 
rendezvous. Two men — the strongest of the party — 



Opening up Australia 243 

were deputed to march to the camp to fetch help. The 
rest waited a whole week full of anxiety and hunger, 
and when they had come down to their last ounce of 
flour a loud shout aroused them : their comrades had 
arrived with succour. . . . 

Refreshed and reinforced, Sturt and his companions 
took up the trail again, and six months from the time 
they had set out arrived back in Sydney, after having 
accomplished the most important exploration of 
Australia. 

For the exploration had been very successful : Sturt 
could point to the discovery, or rediscovery, and ex- 
ploration of the river, which later was named the 
Murray, in honour of the chief of the Colonial 
Department. 



THE TRAGEDY OF BURKE AND WILLS 

The Story of the Ill-fated Expedition through the 
Heart of Australia 

IN a previous book* we have narrated the travels of 
Eyre, who tried to penetrate northwards, and 
failed. Later, he journeyed for twelve weary months 
from South Australia until he reached Albany, in 
Western Australia, and opened up a pathway of com- 
munication across the country. We now come to another 
expedition, essayed in i860. The exploring party, con- 
sisting of nineteen men, was commanded by Robert 
O'Hara Burke, an intrepid soldier, who had won a fine 
reputation for fearlessness and doggedness. To the 
chiming of the bells, the blare of guns, the waving 
of banners and the cheering of spectators, the expedi- 
tion set out from Melbourne on August 20 (August, by 
the way, was by no means the best month to set out, 
because it was in the dreadful dry season) — a goodly 
looking company, equipped with stores, wagons, pack- 
horses and instruments, besides over twenty camels 
specially brought from India. The object was to reach 
the Gulf of Carpentaria, via Cooper's Creek, where a 
depot of provisions was to be made. 

But, before the expedition arrived there, many things 
happened to upset the plans that had been formulated. 
The foreman, Ferguson, became mutinous, and had to 
be sent back, while the second in command, G. J. 
Landells, who was in constant friction with Mr. Burke, 
had to be treated in the same way. A third loss to the 

* " Every Boy's Book of Heroes " (Cassell). 
244 



The Tragedy of Burke and Wills 245 

party was the medical officer and botanist, who lost 
heart and turned back. 

Burke promptly reorganised his expedition, appoint- 
ing William John Wills to the post of second in com- 
mand, the third officer being a settler named Wright (a 
most unfortunate choice), who was to lead them to 
Cooper's Creek. 

At Menindie, more than midway between Melbourne 
and the Creek, Burke and Wills, with several other 
men, led by Wright, went ahead to see what manner of 
route it was, the settlers at Menindie having assured 
them that it was dangerous. Wright was later sent 
back to the main party to fetch up the stores, then in 
charge of Dr. Ludwig Becker, geologist, naturalist and 
artist of the expedition. The doctor, after having made 
a number of drawings of the animal life and the scenery 
around Menindie, died there, through having neglected 
himself in the enthusiasm of his work. 

While Wright was journeying back to Menindie, 
Burke and Wills, with half a dozen men, the sixteen 
camels and the fifteen horses composing the advance 
party, were at Cooper's Creek, where they were to wait 
until Wright returned with the fuller equipment, and 
they spent the time in local explorations. 

Wright dallied. He had been instructed to push 
back with all expedition, instead of which he remained 
at Menindie for no purpose whatever, and the explorers, 
anxious to be on their way farther north before the bad 
season set in, had eventually to leave Cooper's Creek 
without waiting for the coming of the stores. Of one 
thing they felt confident, however, and that was that 
Wright would come along in time to deposit the food, 
which they would need for the return journey from the 
Creek after they had been to the farthest north. 

But their confidence was misplaced. Wright, in- 
stead of starting away at once, remained at Menindie 



246 The Boy's Book of Pioneers 

for three months, and this neglect resulted in a great 
tragedy. 

It was on December 16 that Burke and Wills, with 
King and Gray, six camels and one horse, and three 
months' provisions, set out from the Creek, leaving 
there the rest of the expedition in command of William 
Brah^ until Wright should come up. Brah^'s instruc- 
tions were that he was not to leave Cooper's Creek 
before the return of Burke and Wills except under 
absolute necessity, and, assurances having been given 
on this point, the fearless explorers began their journey 
to the gulf. The way lay through waste deserts, salty 
swamps. It was stiff going always; but dangers and 
difficulties did not stop the explorers from making all 
kinds of scientific observations and surveyings, and as 
the days passed they had great hopes of being able to 
win through. Then came the time when the ground 
became impassable for the camels : the rain had poured 
down in torrents, turning the whole country into a 
marsh, through which travelling was extremely difficult. 
Burke decided, on January 30, to leave Gray and King 
behind in charge of the camels, while he and Wills 
pushed forward on foot, leading the pack-horse with 
its valuable store of provisions. Seldom have men 
undertaken so dangerous and difficult a journey : two 
men alone in the wilds of an unknown land, where 
practically nothing edible grew, where at any time they 
might run foul of nomadic natives. If before the way 
had been hard, it was harder than ever now : often and 
often did they have to unload their horse in order to 
extricate him from a bogland, while they themselves 
frequently narrowly escaped death from the same cause. 
But, on they went — on to victory, for after a terrible 
journey they came to the Cloncurry, a tributary of the 
Flinders, and this they followed until they reached the 
shores of the Gulf of Carpentaria, first among men to 



The Tragedy of Burke and Wills 247 

have crossed the great continent from the south to the 
north. 

Their notebooks were filled with some valuable in- 
formation ; they had wrung from the land some of its 
long-hidden secrets, and they were highly pleased at 
the success which had attended their efforts. All that 
now remained was to return. But what an "all"! 
For they had only 185 lb. of stores left, and disaster 
awaited them in the heart of the continent. There was 
a serious fault to find with the expedition, which was, 
that being carried thus far without the scientific section 
of the party, it had not achieved the results it should 
have done. 

By February 13, having picked up Gray and King 
on the way, they were marching towards Cooper's 
Creek. For wellnigh a month they toiled on, meeting 
all kinds of adventures, cheerfully and doggedly. 
Natives barred their paths, swamps sent them swerving 
out of the direct route, although they had endeavoured 
to avoid those difficult places they had found on the way 
northwards. Sometimes they almost met death from 
snakes, and then the long train of great disasters began. 
One of the camels had to be abandoned, and its load 
transferred to another. Some days later the loads proved 
too heavy, and many valuable pounds of stores were 
cast away. Gray died of dysentery on April 8, and the 
other three men were so weak and ill that they had 
scarcely strength to dig his grave. Then another camel 
and the horse died; starvation was the cause, which 
throws a lurid light upon the condition of things at this 
time. Hoping that the animals might prove useful 
dead, the men killed them, but found them so emaciated 
that of fat, which they sorely needed, there was none. 

Still, on the three men went, barely able though they 
were to drag one foot behind the other. Like a mirage 
in the desert ever before their eyes was the prospect that 



248 The Boy's Book of Pioneers 

in a few days they would be at Cooper's Creek, where, 
they told themselves, they would find food in plenty. 

... It was only a mirage, that, for when, on 
April 21, they arrived at the Creek it was deserted. 

Never did men suffer so severe a disappointment ; 
they had looked for comrades, plentiful supplies, and 
instead they found a deserted camp ! Exhausted as he 
was, and unable to control his feelings, Burke flung 
himself to the ground in an agony of despair, while 
Wills, apparently in so weak a state that the full pur- 
port of it did not come to him all at once, seemed to 
take things more philosophically. After the first 
paroxysm of grief, the explorers searched the camp, 
seeking food ; they discovered a notice cut on a tree : 

*'Dig, 21 April, 1861." 

The irony of it ! Only that day had their friends 
left the camp ! A few hours' longer sojourn there 
would have meant — the explorers did not know then 
what it might have meant, but there was in it all the 
difference between life and death. 

Eagerly, and as quickly as their famished condition 
would allow them, they dug and found the cache indi- 
cated by the notice, hoping that it would bring to light 
some news whereby they could hasten after their com- 
rades. This is what they found, a letter, reading : 

"The depot party of the V.E.E. leaves this camp 
to-day to return to the Darling. I intend to go S.E. 
from Camp 60 to get into our old track near BuUoo. 
Two of my companions and myself are quite well ; the 
third, Paton, has been unable to walk for the last 
eighteen days, as his leg has been severely hurt when 
thrown by one of the horses. 

"No one has been up here from the Darling. 

"We have six camels and twelve horses in good 
working condition. "William Brahe." 



The Tragedy of Burke and Wills 249 

The full significance of the letter burst upon the ex- 
plorers : their comrades had been gone they knew not 
how many hours, and they were in good working con- 
dition, which meant that the weakened three could not 
hope to catch up with them. 

Fortunately, some stores in the way of oatmeal, rice, 
flour and sugar had been left behind, and they made 
themselves a supper, and decided upon what course to 
adopt. All seemed black as night before them. They 
thought that if they made tracks in the wake of the 
returning party they might catch it up, although, as a 
matter of fact, Burke was not hurrying. Burke finally 
made up his mind that it would be best to set off for 
Adelaide, via Mount Hopeless, where they might find 
succour. As a matter of fact, this was a blunder on 
Burke's part. The right thing to have done was to 
have taken the route by which he had come up from the 
Darling. Leaving a note in the cache telling of their 
need, after a few days' rest the three men struck out for 
Mount Hopeless, and hopeless everything was. The 
watercourses, on which life depended, were all dry, and 
after some days of hard travelling the explorers re- 
luctantly had to turn back for a creek, forty miles 
behind, where there was water. 

Arrived there, they found that their food was so 
scarce that further travelling was impossible : three 
sticks of dried meat and one tiny cake was all that was 
left for each day's rations. What was to be done? 
They could not venture forth on such scanty fare. Wills 
went alone to Cooper's Creek and put another note in 
the cache saying that they were at the little creek. The 
one hope that buoyed the men was that Brah6 or some 
other member of the party might possibly return to 
Cooper's Creek. 

Now began a waiting period — interminable, arduous. 
Day by day their store of food grew smaller, and not 



250 The Boy's Book of Pioneers 

even when they made friends with some natives, who 
gave them fish, and taught them how to make porridge 
from the seeds of the nardoo plant — were they much 
better off, for the porridge was unsuitable to their 
stomachs. 

Weaker and weaker the men became : day after day 
they made their porridge, seeking to grow accustomed 
to it against the time when the dried camel meat should 
give out altogether. At last that happened, and nardoo 
comprised their sole food. "I cannot understand this 
nardoo at all," Wills wrote in his journal; "it certainly 
will not agree with me in any form. We are now re- 
duced to it alone, and we manage to consume from four 
to five pounds per day between us; it appears to be 
quite indigestible, and cannot possibly be sufficiently 
nutritious to sustain life by itself." 

Wills grew weaker daily; Burke and King sought 
for the nardoo whenever they could walk about, seeing 
that it was their all. Wills tried to chew tobacco and 
eat less of the porridge in the hope that he might find 
sustenance in that. But slow starvation, combined with 
exposure to the cruelly cold weather, against which their 
now threadbare clothing could not protect them, brought 
the end nearer and nearer. By June 27 Wills wrote a 
letter to his father, in which he said that he expected to 
live no longer than five days, but "my spirits are 
excellent," he said. 

A couple of days after that Burke and King, by 
agreement with Wills, went out in search of native 
succour : it was the only hope. They collected as much 
nardoo for Wills as they could, placed beside him what 
water and firewood they were able to, shook hands 
gravely yet hopefully, and went out, leaving their com- 
rade. It was with sad hearts they went, but they knew 
that it must be done, for his sake. And Wills, lying 
helpless, unable to stir from the rough bed in the midst 



The Tragedy of Burke and Wills 251 

of the wild waste, waited — for "something to turn up," 
as he himself wrote in his last pathetic letter. 

"I am weaker than ever," he wrote; "although I 
have a good appetite and relish the nardoo much, but 
it seems to give us no nutriment; and the birds are so 
shy as not to be got at. Even if we got a good supply 
of fish I doubt whether we could do much work on them 
and the nardoo alone. Nothing now but the greatest 
good luck can save any of us; and as for myself, I may 
live four or five days if the weather continues warm. 
My pulse is at forty-eight, and very weak, and my legs 
and arms are nearly skin and bone. I can only look 
out, like Mr. Micawber, * for something to turn up.' 
Starvation by nardoo is by no means very unpleasant, 
but for the weakness one feels and the utter inability to 
move oneself, for as far as appetite is concerned it gives 
the greatest satisfaction. Certainly fat and sugar would 
have been more to one's taste, in fact, those seem to me 
to be the great stand-by for one in this extraordinary 
continent, not that I mean to depreciate the farinaceous 
food, but the want of sugar and fat in all food substances 
obtainable here is so great that they become almost 
valueless as articles of food without the addition of 
something else." 

The letter of a hero. ... Of a man who knew how 
near was death, and yet who could write calmly and 
without a murmur at the fate before him or at the con- 
duct of those who, had they done what had been ex- 
pected of them, could have brought him to the joyous 
end of a perilous journey. 

He died, this hero of the heart of Australia, alone in 
a wild and desolate land ; died in the doing of his duty, 
and yet lives in the memory of man. . . . 

And while his comrade lay dying, Burke was toiling 
painfully along a rough and torturous road — every step 
was a jar to his body, racked with pain ; and on the 



252 The Boy's Book of Pioneers 

second day, after travelling for two miles, that seemed 
like twenty, he threw away his little bundle and, sitting 
down, vowed he could go no farther. King, however, 
knowing that to stay was to court death, urged him to 
be up and going. By a mighty effort Burke kept on a 
little longer, and then a halt was called for the night. 
They ate a meagre supper of nardoo and a crow, which 
King had been lucky enough to kill during the day. 
Afterwards Burke wrote something in his notebook, 
which he handed to King. 

"I hope that we shall be done justice to," was what 
he had written. "We have fulfilled our task, but we 

have been aban . We have not been followed up 

as we expected, and the depot party abandoned their 

P^s^- '• R. O'Hara Burke." 

"King has behaved nobly. I hope that he will be 
properly cared for. He comes up the creek in accord- 
ance with my request. a^ O'Hara Burke." 

"Cooper's Creek, June 28th." 

Those were the last words he ever wrote, and when 
he had written them he said to King : 

" I hope you will remain with me here till I am quite 
dead — it is a comfort to know that someone is by ; but, 
when I am dying, it is my wish that you place the pistol 
in my right hand and that you leave me unburied as 
I lie." .... 

Next morning, with his right hand clutching the 
pistol, and his left under his weary head as he lay 
beneath a tree, with King, broken-hearted, kneeling at 
his side, O'Hara Burke died a hero's death. . . . He 
had done that which he set out to do. . . . 

King buried him in the sand, and then, alone, 
hungry, weary, he trudged on up the creek, seeking 



The Tragedy of Burke and Wills 253 

natives; but, finding none, he resolved to return to 
where Wills had been left. Arriving, he found him 
also dead. . . . 

Only one joyful thing was there during all these 
tragic hours. King saw traces of the presence of 
natives, and, having buried Wills as he had buried 
Burke, he followed the trail, coming up with them after 
a terrible journey. 

The natives were those who had been to the spot 
where Burke lay dead, and when King, by signs, made 
them aware that the other white man who had been with 
him had also died, they, realising the situation of the 
solitary man who stood before them, took pity upon 
him, gave him food, which he so sorely needed, and 
then allowed him to go with them to their camp, where 
he remained a month. 

Thus ended the tragic Burke and Wills expedition 
across Australia : successful in that it achieved its 
object, yet was it disastrous to those who had led it. The 
heart of Australia was no longer the sealed book it had 
been, although much more was to be done before it was 
mapped out. 

In Melbourne, the long delay of the explorers caused 
great concern, and eventually (it was too late to be of 
any service) a rescue party was sent out, led by Mr. 
A. W. Howitt. He arrived in the neighbourhood of 
Cooper's Creek on September 15, found King, heard 
from him the tragic story, gave the two heroes fit 
burial, rewarded the natives for their kindness to King 
(who was so ill, physically and mentally, that he could 
then give but a very incoherent version of things), and 
then returned to Melbourne with the melancholy news. 

It is tragic to think that the failure, when a suc- 
cessful return might have been made, was caused by 
blunders which could have been avoided : if Wright had 
done what Burke had instructed him to do, if Brah^ and 



254 The Boy's Book of Pioneers 

Wright had remained but a few hours longer at 
Cooper's Creek; if Burke had but gone the right way 
back, and if, when later, on May 9, Brah^ and Wright 
returned to the camp (having no doubt realised what 
the result of their going away would mean) they had 
done the obvious thing, namely, look in the cache, they 
would have discovered the letter the famished and weary 
explorers had left behind telling whither they had gone ; 
and the expedition would have had a better end. 



PIONEERING FOR A TRADE ROUTE 
I How a Man Tried to Get Through Tibet 

PERHAPS it may be said that by far the majority 
of exploring expeditions have as their object the 
discovery of some new fields for commerce, and not a 
few were undertaken with the idea of driving a trade 
route through between two commercial centres- 
One of the finest attempts ever made in this direc- 
tion was that of T. T. Cooper, of the Calcutta Chamber 
of Commerce, who, in 1867, set out from Shanghai 
with the intention of travelling through China and 
Tibet, and so to Calcutta, hoping thereby to open up a 
new pathway of commerce. 

There was something staggering in the very idea of 
such a journey. For one thing, it was hundreds of 
miles, and, for another, it lay through country which 
was extremely difficult and whose people were uncivil- 
ised, even barbarous. China, in those days which seem 
so very near, was a terra incognita to Europeans. 

But Cooper, knowing all this, was convinced that his 
project was one worth carrying out, if possible. He 
did not know the language of the country, but believed 
that, on reaching Hankow (700 miles up the Yangtse 
River) he would be able to hire a guide and an in- 
terpreter. From Shanghai to Hankow the journey was 
made in company with a band of French missionaries, 
who were forbidden to go farther with him. He found 
his interpreter, George Philips, a native Christian, and 
his guide, Lowlee, rigged himself out as a Chinaman, 
cutting his hair, shaving his head, fixing a false pigtail 

255 



256 The Boy's Book of Pioneers 

(there would be no need to do that these days), wore 
dark spectacles, and assuming a Chinese costume ; then, 
with a couple of hundred pounds to see him through, 
set out on his journey. 

His adventures began almost at once. Not even the 
elaborate disguise he had assumed sufficed to save him 
from being recognised as a foreign devil : he was a 
tall man, and this attracted attentions that otherwise he 
might have escaped. At one place a boatman cried out 
"Foreigner ! " and immediately the whole village turned 
out and began to mob him. Hisses and groans came 
from everywhere ; men and women crowded about him, 
and Cooper realised that the situation was anything but 
pleasant, and likely to become decidedly uncomfortable, 
if not dangerous. However, he was a man of resource, 
and bold ; had he not been he would never have ventured 
forth. He calmly strolled up to one of the men, who 
seemed a little different from the others, asked him for 
a light for his pipe, and with the aid of Philips, opened 
up a conversation with him ! The very audacity of the 
man astounded the Chinaman, who, it transpired, was 
the owner of the mill near by, and was a man of much 
influence in the district. Cooper's lucky star must have 
been in the ascendant, for the mill-owner calmed the 
demonstrators, and after a while Cooper was able to 
move about freely. 

One of the things that Cooper had to suffer for was 
his ignorance of the manners and customs of the people 
he encountered. The yellow men had all sorts of queer 
ideas, and the most innocent little action often brought 
the traveller into danger. One day he was sitting in a 
boat, enjoying a quiet smoke, and, as smokers some- 
times do, expectorated into the water. The next instant 
there was a terrific howling, and Cooper felt himself 
dragged on to his back, with the two boatmen on top 
of him, pommelling him. When he freed himself, after 



Pioneering for a Trade Route 257 

some trouble, he discovered that he had offended the 
God of the Wind, who might send his blasts and 
cause disaster 1 And, if it had happened just then that 
the wind rose. Cooper would have found the whole 
affair very annoying, to say the least. 

Some time after that, in a different setting, another 
deity, the God of the Hills, was offended. Cooper, 
when passing through a gorge, gave vent to a loud 
"Coo-ee!" with the object of raising echoes. There 
was the deuce to pay with the Chinese with him, espec- 
ially as just then a chunk of rock fell from one of the 
mountains ! Sure sign, they said, that the god was 
angry. So, to appease him, there was much burning 
of crackers and tapers 1 

But such things as these were but minor incidents, 
although very trying. When Cooper, after many diffi- 
culties, arrived at Chung-Ching, a most important town, 
called the "Liverpool of Western China," he heard of a 
rebellion in Yunnan, and, as his intended route lay 
through that troublous province, he knew that the un- 
settled state of the country would render it impossible 
for him to go that way. 

Still, where there's a will there's a way, so it is said, 
and Cooper, instead of giving up altogether, simply 
changed his route; he would go through Eastern Tibet 
to Sudyja, on the Brahmaputra. He fished around in 
Chung-Ching, and obtained introductions to various 
French bishops on the road, and, with these and what 
was left of his two hundred pounds — not much ! — he 
set out again. 

Now his troubles really began. His route lay over- 
land, and he had had to engage carriers for his chair. 
Every little official seemed to bar his way for some 
reason or another; mostly they wanted to see his pass- 
ports, which they haggled about as much as possible in 
order to delay him and exact blackmail; and Cooper 

R 



258 The Boy's Book of Pioneers 

realised that if it were at all possible these officials would 
upset his plans altogether, for they resented the coming 
of this Englishman. His native costume served him 
nothing in these circumstances, for news of the coming 
of "Tang Kooper," the English merchant, always pre- 
ceded his arrival at the different towns, and officialdom 
got to work immediately and used every endeavour to 
impede him. 

However, Cooper was nothing daunted; he over- 
came every obstacle put in his path, smoothed out diffi- 
culties, turned possible seriousness into a joke, and 
altogether succeeded in outwitting, by his very tactful- 
ness, the crafty Chinese. 

From Chung-Ching he made his way up towards 
Chen-tu-foo, whence he went on to the foot of the 
Yang-Nin Mountains. Twelve thousand feet above, the 
mountains reared their heads, and they must be crossed 
if he would continue on his way. Cooper no doubt 
thought that mountaineering was better than mandarin- 
dogging, and did riot hesitate a moment. He led his 
companions up the steep side of the mountain by what 
were supposed to be paths, but were really little more 
than ruts. Sometimes even these were barred by great 
falls of snow, through which a way had to be cut ; some- 
times the narrowness of the paths was such that it 
seemed impossible for any man to keep a footing — 
when to misstep was to be hurled into the abyss below ; 
but Cooper carved his way through the snow, wormed 
his way along the precipice's edge, fought onward and 
upward until at last he passed the summit. 

So far, so good, but time and again he had to face 
the Chinese officials, who presented as difficult barriers 
as the mountains of Yang-Nin. At one place a mob — 
it was supposed to be an army — ^broke into his hotel, 
and Cooper had to deal the looters a few good English 
punches, and then kept them at bay with his revolver 



Pioneering for a Trade Route 259 

until the official commanding came up, and was per- 
suaded — by the revolver — to call his men off. 

People snarled at the white man as he passed through 
the villages, because leprosy was prevalent just then, and 
they imagined that he was responsible for it 1 Some- 
times an official would buttonhole him, as it were, 
and ask : 

"Tell me, Tang Koopaa, do you come to spy out 
the land for the coming of white soldiers ? " 

Cooper would produce his passports, which showed 
how innocent were his intentions, and he would be 
allowed to go on again, only to be held up once more 
by some bumptious mandarin, who would ask : 

"Are you the teacher of a new religion, and will 
teachers follow you to shake the faith ? " 

Again "No" for an answer, and again on, until at 
last Cooper had crossed the frontier between China and 
Tibet, throwing aside his Chinese costume when he did 
so, and discarding the chair in which he had ridden. 
It was a great relief to him to mount a horse and ride as 
an Englishman should ride I 

One day he came, after much trouble, to the top- 
most ridge of the Jeddo Range, and knew that he had 
accomplished what no other Englishman had yet done. 
"Away to the east," he wrote in the book which records 
his journeyings, "stretched the vast Empire of China. 
Hitherto it had been the boast of Frenchmen that their 
countrymen alone of Europeans had traversed China to 
Tibet ; and as I stood alone on the summit of the Jeddo 
Pass my exultation at the thought that now, at any rate, 
one Englishman had crossed the Flowery Land, found 
vent in a cheer, and the mountains of Tibet for the first 
time echoed a British cheer." 

Cooper was not shouting "victory" before the end 
was won. He knew that before him lay as great 
troubles as those he had passed through ; really, they 



26o The Boy's Book of Pioneers 

were greater. The officials of Tibet were as nosey as 
those of China, and were not at all pleased at the advent 
of the "foreign devil." The trials of the plodding were 
as severe as ever; mountains, as desolate as any in the 
world, snow-capped and glacier covered, had to be 
crossed, and more than once the little party was in 
danger of slipping into the deep chasms which yawned 
about them or of sinking in the snowdrifts. Many times 
the pack animals had to be dug out before they could 
proceed further. Nipped by the cold winds that blew, 
and hungry for days on end, Cooper kept on until he 
passed the boundary of Eastern and Western Tibet, 
and found more trouble than ever. The natives, who 
looked askance at him, and anticipated evil attending 
his coming, refused to supply him with food, so he 
had to go on hungrier than ever, yet still undaunted. 

Then another kind of difficulty came along : the 
whole route seemed to be infested with bandits, who 
looked upon the white traveller as legitimate prey, and 
did all they could to waylay him. On one occasion, as 
he was toiling painfully along a mountain road, he was 
startled by the singing of a bullet past his ear, and the 
next moment saw a number of men, all armed, standing 
outside a cave. Before he knew what was afoot, a volley 
was poured in upon the little band of travellers, but the 
bandits were poor shots, fortunately, and only one mule 
was hit. Next instant Cooper showed the Tibetans how 
to shoot I He fired, smashed one of the bandit's match- 
locks, and wounded a man. Away went the ruffians, 
thoroughly scared, never daring to trouble the white 
man again. 

But the experience had Suggested possibilities of 
dreadful things to Cooper, who expected that any 
moment he might be picked off by a robber hiding 
behind one of the rocks, or in one of the many caves. 
Even this, however, did not serve to make him turn 



Pioneering for a Trade Route 261 

back, for, he said, "the constant expectation of coming 
to grief had settled down into dogged indifference." 

He managed to obtain a couple of guides to lead 
him to Assam (the road to Lhassa was barred, and his 
passports of no use). A queer adventure befell him, for, 
without his knowing it, he was "married" to a Tibetan 
girl I He could not rid himself of that complication, 
and solved the problem by taking the woman under his 
fatherly care, treating her as his daughter. 

Later on the two guides deserted, carrying off all 
the provisions, and leaving the white man stranded. 
In an attempt to obtain a lamb. Cooper was badly 
assaulted by a furious lama and a woman. It would 
have gone ill with him had not Philips rescued him at 
the point of a rifle 1 

Cooper had previously handed his "wife" over to 
some of her relations. 

In due course Atenze was reached, and from then 
on he found the way a hundred times worse than it had 
ever been ; not a single official would do anything to 
help him — all, indeed, had received instructions to turn 
him back somehow. Sheer doggedness alone made him 
keep on, despite all the intrigues and all the force 
brought against him. The soldiers, evidently acting on 
orders, did what they could to oppose him, and at Wei^ 
see-foo had to take pretty strong measures against them. 
Cooper had again altered his plans owing to obstruc- 
tions, and was making for Tab-foo, in Yunnan, despite 
the troubled state of that province. 

He was returning to the house where he had put up 
when he found a crowd gathered outside, and was just 
in time to see a number of soldiers walking out; one of 
them carried Cooper's rifle, and every one of the others 
had something or other belonging to him. It was a 
case for strong measures and fearless action, and Cooper 
rose to the occasion. Boldly he pushed his way through 



262 The Boy's Book of Pioneers 

the crowd, gave the man carrying the gun a terrific 
blow which knocked him down, and then, drawing his 
revolver and a long Swiss hunting knife, faced the mob. 
Instantly there was a rough-and-tumble. Philips stood 
by his master, and then the mob came at them. With 
yells of rage and with flashing knives the soldiers 
sought to get at Cooper, but the sight of the wicked- 
looking revolver and the hunting knife held them back 
a while. Then they surrounded him preparatory to 
making a rush. Cooper suddenly fired his revolver 
into the ground; the sharp reports utterly demoralised 
the mob, which turned and fled out of the courtyard of 
the house, followed hard by Cooper and his man. Here 
the natives might have stood for another attempt had 
not Cooper fired yet again, this time over their heads, 
and pressing forward at the same time. As though by 
magic the crowd opened before him, and he and Philips 
swept through, making full pelt for the Ya-mun, 
followed to the gates by the hooting crowd. 

Wei-see-foo was too hot a place for comfort, and 
Cooper soon shook its dust from his feet, only to get 
into a hotter place than ever I For at the very next 
village the people were alarmed by some scaremonger 
who had told them that the white man had been sent 
by the authorities to investigate the Yunnan rebellion, 
and that a great army was following in his wake. All 
the people of the village fled, taking with them every 
morsel of food, and thereafter Cooper was never sure 
of his life. Ambushes would be laid for him, from 
which he escaped only as by miracles. No matter where 
he put up, he had to barricade himself into the house 
and set watch, and even then, at times, the soldiers and 
the mob would attempt to rush the house. 

And at last Cooper was taken prisoner. The authori- 
ties were acting more open-handedly than they had 
been doing. Yet it was not headquarters, but some 



Pioneering for a Trade Route 263 

petty local chief who had caused him to be captured and 
hauled off to the prison at Wei-see-foo, where he was 
informed that he would only be set free if he paid eight 
hundred pounds as ransom and give up his firearms, 
including "the wonderful little gun which shoots five 
times without fire or powder." They remembered the 
scrap with the revolver I 

Cooper, who had been kept in prison for some weeks 
while the Tibetans were making up their minds, refused; 
and determined that by some means or other he would 
make his escape. He waited for his opportunity, and 
early one morning, while the guard was asleep, he 
slipped away and made off towards Bathang. This 
meant that he was going back to China, for by this time 
he had realised that it would be impossible for him to 
succeed in his project, and that discretion was the better 
part of valour ; but he was not yet out of the wood, for, 
before many hours had passed, a band of soldiers was 
sent out to pursue him, caught him up, and hauled him 
back to Wei-see-foo. 

For a long time he was ill with fever, and almost at 
the point of death, but on recovering he demanded an 
inquiry into the whole matter, and in due course was 
released, and set out on the return journey. 

He had failed, truly, but it was not for want of 
trying nor for want of pluck; the man who, on 
November ii, 1869, arrived back in Hankow was one 
of those men whose failure is almost success. 



THE RAILWAYMAN AS PIONEER 

Hovr the Steel Road has been Driven into the World's 
Wild Places 

FOLLOWING the modern explorer there goes, in most 
cases, the engineer : maybe it is the mining engineer 
out to investigate the mineral wealth of a country, or 
perhaps — ^and it is quite possible that he follows 
immediately on the heels of the mining expert — the 
railroadman. For, if there are minerals worth work- 
ing, then rapid and cheap transit is necessary, hence 
the railway. 

Very often it was not mineral wealth, but some other 
commercial commodity that rendered the railroad 
necessary; and, in any case, it has been found that a 
steel backbone to a country has done a good deal in 
the civilising way. 

In this book we have already seen, for instance, 
something of the condition of affairs in Africa. Men 
went out, literally taking their lives in their hands, for 
the vast jungles had to be cut through, hostile natives 
had to be encountered, there were wild animals galore, 
and the caravan routes were the road to — death, in 
many cases. To-day, however, all this, or much of it, 
is changed. Natives are being civilised, jungles have 
roads cut through them; rivers, before almost impass- 
able, are bridged; and he who would go from the 
coast to one of the great lakes need never see a wild 
animal unless he chooses. And all this is the result 
of the driving of the steel line. The railwayman is 
indeed a pioneer. 

And, not only Africa, but also Canada, where, in 

264 



The Railwayman as Pioneer 265 

the old days, travelling was regarded as an adventure 
entered upon at great risk. 

Few railways in the world have been so fruitful of 
commercial prosperity as the Canadian Pacific Rail- 
way, the steel backbone of the Land of the Maple Leaf. 
We have seen how North America was opened up by 
the fur-traders in the long ago, and when it was proposed 
to drive a glittering line from the Atlantic to the Pacific, 
the surveyors called in the aid of the men of the Hud- 
son Bay Company, who, like their forerunners, knew 
every trail leading to the western sea. There is a deal 
of romance about the C.P.R. The queer thing about 
it is that it did not come into existence so much because 
Canada generally asked for it, but because one colony, 
British Columbia, cut off from the east by the towering 
Rockies, demanded it as the price of its entry into the 
new Dominion by which Canada became a nation. The 
federationists must have been very keen, for this 
demand of the British Columbians — a demand involv- 
ing the expenditure of millions of pounds to lay down 
a three-thousand mile railway — was agreed to. So 
British Columbia came in, when Sir John Macdonald, 
the Premier, promised, in 187 1, that the line should 
be completed by 1881. 

Surveying began almost at once. Sir (then Mr.) 
Sandford Fleming being surveyor-in-chief. He sent 
out his expedition of surveyors, and blazed a trail right 
across the continent. It had taken the United States 
fifty years to make surveys of a kind that the Canadians 
had two years to carry out, and the ground was new, 
and Fleming called in the aid of the fur-men. 

When the Rockies were reached it was a case of 
selecting the easiest route, for the towering mountains, 
with their rushing torrents, deep ravines, presented 
many difficulties. Fleming chose his route, but a 
part of it was rejected for what seemed an easier one, 



266 The Boy*s Book of Pioneers 

although it turned out, in the working, to be infinitely- 
more difficult* 

However, the Dominion Government satisfied itself 
that it had chosen the best track for the steel highway, 
and the work was begun. By 1881 the line had to be 
finished; by 1879 only just over seven hundred miles 
had been laid down 1 The Pacific province protested 
at the inertia of the Government; the work must be 
"hustled." So the Government set to work in earnest. 
It accepted the offer of a syndicate made up of eight 
men, who saw the possibilities of the railway, to carry 
the scheme through to completion upon condition that 
the Government subsidised it to the extent of 
;^5, 000,000. Further conditions were the free grant of 
about twenty-five million acres of land, a right of way 
for the line and sites for stations (there was to be a 
station at every sixteen miles), no customs charges on 
materials, and the seven hundred odd completed miles 
were to be thrown in as overweight. 

Faced with the certainty of not being able to finish 
the line itself by the time stipulated by British 
Columbia — the time was extended to 1891 — the 
Dominion Government agreed to the terms, and the 
work began. 

The task was let out to sub-contractors, who were 
faced with the problem of constructing something like 
250 miles of line per year — some of it through country 
that seemed specially moulded to defy all attempts to 
subjugate it. Shortness of time and lack of money 
were the bugbears of the whole enterprise. Although, 
if and when completed — both matters of doubt amongst 
unbelievers — the railway would prove of inestimable 
value to Canada, the money-market was not willing to 
risk its money on the venture; it was too much of a 
gamble. So, when the syndicate at last came to the 
end of its financial resources, it appealed to the 



The Railwayman as Pioneer 267 

Dominion Government to help it, and received a loan 
of six million pounds* 

" Good heavens I " a financier exclaimed, a propos 
the sinking of gigantic sums in the steel highway, 
"somebody will have to hold these Canadians back or 
they will plunge themselves into hopeless bankruptcy 
before they come of age/' 

However, the men who did believe risked their all. 
Lord Strathcona and his cousin. Lord Mount Stephen, 
had made much money in Canada, and they saw the 
value of the railway; they were not afraid to sink their 
wealth in it. 

A word or two here about Lord Strathcona. He 
went to Canada when quite a boy, with few of this 
world's goods and no friends, and he plunged into fur- 
trading in Labrador, plodding along hopefully, and the 
great fur company step by step promoted him until he 
became its governor. Donald Smith his name was in 
those days; as Lord Strathcona he will go down in 
history — the maker of modern Canada. 

Now to the work itself. 

It was hard going nearly everywhere. Mountains, 
rivers, forests barred the way; rocks had to be blasted 
and tunnelled, great ravines had to be bridged, vast 
bogs — muskegs they are called, lakes hidden beneath a 
thick mass of peaty matter — had to be crossed, and, 
literally, thousands of pounds' worth of material were 
sunk in these bogs before the road could get through. 
Think of this for a job : one of the bogs of South 
Ontario would hold nothing on its surface, it seemed; 
everything was sucked into its greedy maw. Weeks 
were spent on laying what was thought to be a safe 
line, but the first train that went over it rocked like a 
switchback as the rails broke from their bolts. It 
seemed absolutely hopeless, and some other route 
would have to be found I But the engineers triumphed ; 



268 The Boy's Book of Pioneers 

they used sleepers 40 feet long and "fish-plates" 40 
inches long to hold sleepers and rails together. 

Then at the Pic River stone piers had to be built to 
carry a bridge a hundred and ten feet above the water, 
and at Saltfish Bay ;^300,ooo were spent to get the line 
half a mile nearer the coast, via a winding track, through 
tunnels and over bridges 1 

But the constructional difficulties met with east of 
the Rockies were as nothing compared with those at 
the mountain barrier to the west. After having solved 
the problems of gradients between Montreal and Lake 
Superior (the two hundred miles section along the north 
shore cost nearly ;^2, 500,000 I), and having overcome 
the difficulties of the well-timbered and much-watered 
country between Port Arthur on the lake and Winni- 
peg in Manitoba, the vast expanse of prairie stretched 
before the railwaymen, who were able to speed up 
construction. The prairies had an ill name in those 
days : winter was said to be too terrible to stand, and a 
number of the men knocked off work when autumn 
came, which meant that those who had the pluck to 
stick found plenty of work to do. It was not simply a 
case, even on the prairie, of laying the line. In winter 
Boreas blew with icy breath from the north, and it was 
foreseen that snow would be a terrible foe to transit if 
precautions were not taken. Snow slides would slip 
down on to the permanent way and block traffic, perhaps 
for weeks. So the line was laid on embankments 
wherever that was possible, and where that could not 
be done the permanent way was in cuttings which did 
not have steep sides, and, as an additional precaution, 
the engineers undertook to improve upon Nature; they 
made a ridge, out of the millions of cubic feet of earth 
removed in the cuttings, to the north of the line, to act 
as a snow-screen. 

The method of work may be gathered from the way 



The Railwayman as Pioneer 269 

in which the prairie section of the line was made. The 
chief contractors for that section sub-let the work to 
small- contractors, most of whom took in hand the com- 
pletion of a five-mile stretch, which was to be finished 
at a certain time, in order to link up with other sections. 
When a gang had finished its own portion it would 
pack up its kit and move forward to a place perhaps 
thirty miles ahead, and begin another section. The 
number of men thus employed in 1882 was 4,000, with 
no fewer than 1,700 two-horse teams. 

The right-of-way having been decided on — it was 
99 feet wide on the prairie — the earth was ploughed up 
and scraped into the proper position to form the bed of 
the permanent way; the "dump," as the mound thus 
made was termed, was allowed to settle down, and then 
the "trimmers" came along and levelled up the top, on 
which the gangers laid the sleepers and the rails. The 
rapidity of the work may be judged from the fact that 
in 1882 and 1883 800 miles of track were thus laid 
down, and this was not achieved by scamping the work. 
"The entire line," said Sir William van Home, who 
was at one time chairman of the C.P.R., "is thoroughly 
well built of the best materials, and everything has been 
done to make it a first-class railway in every respect; 
and with a view to the greatest economy in working 
the transportation department was charged with the 
delivery of all the materials and supplies at the end of 
the track, and when the quantity of these and the great 
distances they had to be transported are considered, it 
will be thought no small feat to have moved them to 
the front day after day and month after month, with 
such regularity that the greatest delay experienced by 
the track-layers during two seasons' work was less than 
three hours." 

As fast as the gangers moved forward laying the 
double track of rails the construction train puffed behind 



270 The Boy's Book of Pioneers 

them with its sleepers and rails all ready, and as quickly 
as the sleepers were in position and the rails on them, 
the gangers bolted on the fish-plates and "spiked" 
down. 

It should be remembered that while men were toiling 
like giants from the east, others were also pushing 
eastwards from British Columbia, where the construc- 
tion was going on to meet the line coming from the 
other side of the Rockies. 

For various reasons the company decided that after 
leaving Winnipeg the line should not follow the route 
selected by Fleming, which would have entered the 
mountains very much farther north, but should run 
nearer the frontier between Canada and the United 
States, passing through Calgary to a point in the 
Rockies about a hundred miles north of the boundary. 
As the gradient was not to exceed 1 16 feet per mile, the 
engineers elected to follow the Bow River, which pro- 
vided a grade of just over 12 feet per mile, which, 
worked out over the 120 odd miles from Calgary to the 
summit of Mount Stephen, means a climb of 1,901 feet. 

To show the labour involved among the mountains, 
it is only necessary to say that in the 213 miles between 
Port Moody and Kamloops, twenty tunnels had to be 
driven through the rocks, totally a mile and three- 
quarters; that Kicking Horse Pass presented such 
baffling problems, requiring a great expenditure of time 
and money to solve (and time was much more precious 
than money just then I), that in order to keep on time 
the engineers constructed a temporary line, which in- 
volved a steep gradient for traffic from British Columbia. 
For some years that section of the track called for several 
powerful locomotives to haul each train up what was 
known as the "Big Hill." To overcome that incline 
;^30o,ooo were spent later in building a new seven- 
miles section, which twists and turns, and has a couple 



The Railwayman as Pioneer 271 

of tunnels burrowing through the mountains and two 
steel bridges, a matter of only a few hundred yards 
apart, over the Kicking Horse River. Incidentally, 
that river is crossed no fewer than nine times by the 
C.P.R., six of the bridges being within a distance of 
twelve miles ! Those first bridges, naturally, were 
built of wood, but were superseded by steel and 
concrete bridges. 

Much of the bridge-building was carried out during 
the winter months, when the frozen rivers provided 
foothold; the workmen cutting holes in the ice and 
driving the great piles through into the bottom of the 
river. 

Even when the Rockies were crossed the engineers 
found another obstacle confronting them — the Selkirk 
Range. The Columbia River flowed northwards for 
many miles and swung east round the limit of the range, 
so that to have taken that route would have entailed 
many undesirable miles of track. It was a case of 
crossing the Selkirks, and the surveyors had to do it 
by hook or by crook. 

The old Indian trails all led along the Columbia, 
and the surveyors had to blaze their own trail through 
the mountains. Had Fleming's route been taken 
this would have been unnecessary, of course, but the 
change in the route had been made, and a way 
must be found. Major Rogers, an American railway 
engineer, undertook the task of surveying, and, in 
company with a Mr. Moberly and eight red men, went 
pathfinding for the steelway. It was a hazardous trip. 
Steep mountain-sides were climbed and descended, 
avalanches risked, and four of the Indians slipped off 
a rocky ledge high up on the mountains and perished. 
But the survey was made and the report given, with 
special injunctions to the engineers to look out for snow. 

Snow was the bugbear of the mountains. In these 



272 The Boy's Book of Pioneers 

ranges, steep-sided as they were, the snow has a nasty 
knack of giving way and tumbling down in an over- 
whelming mass, carrying rocks which, were precautions 
not taken, would smash the permanent way to pieces. 

So during the good weather the engineers built the 
permanent way, and although when winter came in 
constructional work was held up, observation work went 
on. It was necessary to see what would have to be 
done to guard against the snowslides, and for this 
purpose engineers exiled themselves amongst the iron- 
bound ranges to get data of the vagaries of the snow. 

The result of this was that when work was resumed 
it was necessary to build snowsheds to protect the line — 
and the trains. Four miles of sheds, built of heavy 
timber felled in the forests around, and filled in with 
earth and stones, were built. They were not in one 
long unbroken line, but divided into sections, to prevent 
their being all destroyed by fire from the engine sparks. 

Naturally the spaces between the sections were 
always open to the disaster of the snowslide; Sir 
William van Home conceived a method of overcoming 
even that. This was the "split-fence," a V-shaped 
structure placed high on the mountain in such a position 
that when the snow comes slipping down it breaks on 
the point of the fence which sticks up, and the two 
portions rush down on either side, and instead of filling 
up the space between the sheds, tumble on the roofs 
and fall over the other side. 

But snow was not the only difficulty. The engineers 
had to overcome a sudden descent from the Selkirks into 
the Illecillewaet Valley, and this they did by a great 
curve down the mountain. The line is a zigzag down 
637 feet in seven miles; across a high bridge it swings 
back almost to the point it started from, and completes 
the "S" in a curve that carries it across a deep ravine, 
doubling again by crossing and recrossing a river, so 



The Railwayman as Pioneer 273 

that there are "six tracks running almost parallel to 
one another, each on a different level, and each 
supported largely by trestle bridges." 

One would like to tell in greater detail of the pro- 
digious efforts of the engineers — the drilling, driving, 
blasting, the throwing of bridges across ravines, of 
farmers who hired themselves and their horses to further 
the work, of the troubles with the red men, who did 
not look with pleasure upon the glittering line of steel. 
But space forbids, although perhaps one ought to give 
the following picturesque incident, so reminiscent of the 
conflict between red and white : 

A Cree named Pie-a-Pot and his band pitched their 
wigwams on the prairie well in advance of the railhead, 
and when the construction gang appeared on the scene 
the chief was astride the route marked out. It was a 
case of getting past that encampment somehow. 

The problem was as stiff as any Nature set them. 
Pie-a-Pot took not the slightest notice of the white men 
who found themselves thus held up. His braves seemed 
to be running amok, firing off their guns and apparently 
quite willing to have a scrap. 

The North-West Mounted Police were given the task 
of getting rid of the incubus. A sergeant and a trooper 
from Maple Creek station were dispatched to shift 
Pie-a-Pot. 

Coming up with the encampment, the sergeant 
pulled out his proclamation, and in the midst of a 
jostling, yelling crowd of bucks, read to the laughing 
Pie-a-Pot the order to "move on." 

Pie-a-Pot refused, and his men were thoroughly 
enjoying themselves in baiting the white fellows. It 
was a pretty tight corner, but the riders of the plains 
were used to such things, and the sergeant calmly 
pulled out his watch, looked at it, and said quietly : 

"I'll give you fifteen minutes, and if you haven't 
s 



274 The Boy's Book of Pioneers 

begun to comply with the order by then we shall make 
you!" 

The pluck of it ! Two men against a crowd who 
simply yearned for a fight ! 

The chief sat and sucked his pipe, and never a hand 
was moved to get things moving. 

"Time's up ! " said the policeman presently, jumped 
off his horse, kicked Pie-a-Pot's tepee pole and brought 
the whole affair down, and, unmindful of the shouts of 
defiance hurled at him, did the same to every tepee in 
the encampment. 

It was too much even for the obstinate Pie-a-Pot : 
he went. . . . 

And the railwaymen got on with the job. 

The line from Vancouver met the line from the east 
at Craigellachie, about 350 miles from Vancouver, on 
November 7, 1885, six years before the contract time 
was up ! A stupendous achievement this, and when the 
last spike, a golden one, was driven by Lord Strath- 
cona, it heralded the development of a mighty country. 

Of the impressive scene when the golden spike was 
knocked in. Sir Sandford Fleming, who had directed the 
work, wrote : 

"Early in the morning of November 7, 1885, the 
hundreds of busy workmen gradually brought the two 
tracks nearer and nearer, and at nine o'clock the last 
rail was laid in its place to complete the railway con- 
nection from ocean to ocean. All that "remained to 
finish the work was to drive home the last spike. This 
duty devolved upon one of the four directors present, 
the senior in years and influence, he who is known the 
world over as Lord Strathcona. ... It was felt to be a 
moment of triumph. . . . The spike driven home, the 
silence for a moment or two remained unbroken. . . . 
The pent-up feelings found vent in a spontaneous cheer, 
the echoes of which will long be remembered." 



The Railwayman as Pioneer 275 

Thus was the great transcontinental railway built 
and completed; thus did east and west get into com- 
munication ; thus was the greatness of Canada founded, 
because it is incontrovertible that the C.P.R. has created 
modern Canada. It cost millions of pounds, but it has 
opened up millions of acres of rich land, and has made 
Canada a granary of the world. The settler followed 
the rail, brought the land under cultivation, and 
justified the pioneer work of the men who believed in 
the Canadian Pacific Railway. . . . And the C.P.R. 
provided a new route between the Motherland and her 
children down south and far away in the East. 

And now for the Uganda Railway, which pushes 
through British East Africa from Mombasa to the 
Victoria Nyanza. 

When, in 1893, the surveying expedition went forth 
to decide upon the possibilities of building the line, 
the surveyors came back with a report which was highly 
discouraging : true, a railway was not impossible, but 
what with the hostility displayed by the natives, the 
wild-beast infested jungles, lack of water (which would 
be very necessary for the thousands of workers required) 
and distinctly difficult country calling for all kinds of 
engineering expedients, they were not very sanguine. 
Yet, despite this gloomy outlook, the British Govern- 
ment, which had set itself the task of building the line 
to further British interests and to open up the country 
to trade, went straight ahead with the job. 

Seven hundred miles — that was the estimated length 
of the line which was to start from Mombasa. Actually 
it was far shorter, but every single mile was to cost 
life and limb and over ;^9,ooo I 

Thousands of natives were hired — men who knew 
nothing at all of the white man's way of working, and 
hundreds of men were brought over from India to do 
the skilled work. Day after day ships entered Mom- 



276 The Boy's Book of Pioneers 

basa harbour and disgorged their cargoes of sleepers 
and rails and the many tools, from hammers and 
spanners to much more tremendous weapons. 

Mombasa is an island lying just off the mainland, 
separated therefrom by a narrow channel, and, the 
island being the constructional base, it was necessary 
to provide a means for getting over to the coast; so a 
trestle bridge was built rapidly, and while the other 
work was proceeding, engineers more leisurely carried 
out the task of building a permanent bridge, which, 
now known as the Salisbury Bridge, in honour of Lord 
Salisbury, spans the channel between the island and 
the mainland. That in itself was a man-sized job ! 

Communication being set up, the construction of 
the line inland was begun, and went forward merrily, 
what time the skilled labourers from India were not on 
strike or the natives not deserting in batches. The first 
thirty-five miles lay through a jungle, the land having a 
stiff gradient, and after this was overcome the road 
crossed the Taru Desert, a waterless tract, covered with 
dense thorny scrub, which presented manifold diffi- 
culties. To provide water for the thousands of 
labourers, a water-train service was established, bring- 
ing the water for no less a distance than thirty miles ! 
However, mile by mile the steel nose pushed on and 
up, for across the desert the land rises over eleven 
hundred feet in fifty miles. 

Once beyond the limits of the thorn-brake country, 
the work grew easier and more comfortable, as regards 
water at any rate, although the character of the land 
called for much engineering skill in surmounting 
obstacles, none of which were to be compared with 
those that awaited the railroaders at the Tsavo River, 
about a hundred and twenty-two miles up country. 

It was while here that some of the most thrilling 
adventures happened to the engineer-in-charge, Lieut.- 



The Railwayman as Pioneer 277 

Colonel J. H. Patterson, and also to many of the 
coolies who laboured so strenuously at pushing in short 
time the glittering steelway into the heart of Africa. 

Lions I Man-eating lions I 

This sums up the most important of the obstacles 
to progress. The railhead at Tsavo was the happy 
hunting ground of the lords of the forests, whose 
depredations struck terror into the hearts of the coolies. 
Night after night the man-eaters would raid the camps 
and drag off some poor unfortunate black man, and 
although Patterson spent many a weary and cold vigil 
in treetops, in the hope of shooting one of the 
marauders, he failed, because the beasts seemed to have 
an uncanny habit of avoiding the place where he waited, 
and attacking some other camp. The natives were 
thoroughly alarmed, and they believed that the man- 
eaters were a couple of chiefs reincarnated, protesting 
against the railway being built, and trying, by scaring 
the labourers, to make it impossible to finish it I 

It became necessary to protect every camp about 
with thorn-brake bomas. At night huge fires were 
built, and men were employed to beat tin cans and 
make a deuce of a row in the hope of frightening the 
lions away. But whatever was done was useless; the 
man-eaters, with the blood lust upon them, were afraid 
of nothing, and jumped over or broke through the 
fences. The success of the work seemed to be im- 
perilled when, having constructed a temporary bridge 
across the Tsavo River, so that the work could proceed 
beyond, the big camp moved forward, and Patterson 
was left behind to complete the permanent bridge. 
There were fewer men, of course, and a much smaller 
camp. The natives were horribly scared, and even 
refused to work unless the man-eaters were dealt with. 
Night after night the brutes took toll; no place was 
safe. Something must be done. Patterson decided to 



278 The Boy's Book of Pioneers 

take vigorous action, that is to say, even more vigorous 
than he had taken in the past. His book, "The Man- 
Eaters of Tsavo," is a vivid account of his efforts in 
this direction, besides the more ordinary work of 
railway building. 

His first fight with the lions is dramatic. He and 
Dr. Brock sat up one night in a goods wagon, near the 
site of a hospital camp which had been attacked on 
several occasions. A bait of cattle was tied up, and 
the hunters waited, wondering whether the lions would 
put in an appearance. They had been busy at various 
places during the day, for even in daylight folk were 
not safe I 

So the two men waited, hands on rifles, ready, look- 
ing through the open upper half of the door of the 
wagon. It is easy to imagine the tension of the 
hunters : the silence of the night, the grim earnestness 
of the situation, the possibility that at any moment one 
or two of the man-eaters might get upon their scent and 
make a sudden spring upon the men, who scarcely 
dared breathe, or speak, or move. 

The tension was broken by the snapping of a twig; 
there was also a dull thud, which, although the hunters 
did not know it, was the dropping of the lion into the 
boma, then silence again ; and while, with bated breath, 
Patterson and his companion waited, the lion was stalk- 
ing them, and the engineer was pretty glad that he had 
followed Brock's advice and stayed in the wagon, for 
he had been of a mind to go outside and lie on the 
ground in wait. Suddenly a darker patch of blackness 
seemed to move, and Patterson covered it with his rifle. 
Almost at the same moment the black patch leapt 
towards the wagon, there were two blinding flashes, 
two sharp cracks as the men let fly with their rifles, and 
the lion had gone — it had swerved aside, scared, 
undoubtedly, by the reception it met. 



The Railwayman as Pioneer 279 

It escaped. That was the annoying part of the 
business, and Patterson had to look forward to further 
depredations. 

But the lions seemed to have had enough of the 
camp at Tsavo — for a time, at any rate. The coolies 
took new heart, and were proceeding with their work in 
hand quite amiably and fearlessly when once again the 
man-eaters came to pay them a visit. More nightly toll. 
More anxious watching and waiting, and a good deal of 
daylight and dangerous endeavour to stalk the lions 
in the jungle. All fruitless, however. Matters reached 
a climax when every man jack in camp struck work and 
refused to handle another tool ; they deserted in 
hundreds, and the job was held up. Those who remained 
built all manner of huts, which they hoped would 
prove lion-proof — on top of water tanks, in tall trees, 
while some dug deep pits in their tents, into which they 
retired at night, covering themselves in with logs. A 
pretty state of affairs I 

There is no space to tell of all the efforts of Patter- 
son or of the adventures of himself and his assistants. 
Special men were brought up from the coast to fight the 
man-eaters, and every preparation was made to finish 
them off. And yet success did not come. 

Then, when he was left to his own devices, Patter- 
son had some luck. Early one morning a scared native 
brought news of the lions, and Patterson went stalking 
them. He followed their tracks, and at last came in 
sight of one of them. A number of men were employed 
in kicking up a hullabaloo in the opposite direction 
from which Patterson was lying concealed, and when 
the lion came into the open the engineer allowed it to 
get to within a very few yards before firing. 

He pulled the trigger, and the rifle missed fire ! 

After the shock of disappointment Patterson let fly, 
at the brute with the other barrel, and hit the lion as it 



28o The Boy's Book of Pioneers 

bounded away into the jungle, but even then the beast 
escaped I 

Patterson kept watch that night near the half- 
devoured carcase of a donkey, and. the lion came to 
finish his interrupted meal. 

But when Patterson thought he had him for sure 
the brute began to stalk him in the darkness. The man 
fired as rapidly as he could at everything that seemed 
to move, and at last had the satisfaction of knowing 
that he had "killed." 

He was hailed as a deliverer by the coolies when, in 
the morning, the dead body of the lion was found. 

This was only the beginning of Patterson's success, 
and in due course his successes reassured the coolies, 
who resumed work on the bridge over the river. 

Meanwhile, the task of laying the railway over the 
country beyond was proceeding. Wide curves had to 
be made, cuttings had to be driven through rocks, and 
a road cleared through the jungle. Strenuous work, 
all of it. 

At Nairobi, where the headquarters of the railway 
were to be established — it was about half-way between 
coast and lake — there was a good deal of work to be 
done. A whole city was required to be built — an 
industrial town, with all the necessaries for railway con- 
struction and repairs, and there are few better examples 
than Nairobi of the civilisation that follows the steel 
road. 

Before the coming of the railway it was a native 
town of no importance; to-day it is a busy hive of 
industry, with machine shops, engine sheds; all around 
it are cattle farms, the jungle has been cleared, and 
cereals have been sown. If it were not for the coloured 
gentlemen, who make up the greater part of its 
inhabitants, it would be difficult to distinguish it from, 
say, a Canadian town on the prairie. And the nucleus 



The Railwayman as Pioneer 281 

of it was the work put in hand by the railwaymen. 
Hundreds of fresh natives were enlisted for the purpose 
of road-making, bridge-building, and house-building, 
while the actual work of laying the line went on unin- 
terruptedly through the Masai country. It had been 
prophesied by people who opposed the building of the 
railway that the engineers would experience great diffi- 
culty owing to the hostility of the Masai people, One of 
the most warlike tribes in Africa, but, strange to say, 
the Masai proved amenable — some of them even helped 
to build the township of Nairobi. How far this may be 
attributed to the work of an obscure Englishman named 
Boyes it is hard to say. Certainly, at the beginning of 
the enterprise he had had no influence, but while the 
railway was being cut through the Masai country he, 
going, against all advice, among the Wa-Kikiyu 
people, gradually ingratiated himself, at great peril, 
sometimes by strong measures, at others by friendly, 
yet firm, attitude, into the good books of the chiefs, 
until at last he actually became king of the Wa-Kikiyu. 
Undoubtedly his work amongst these natives must have 
affected the work of the railwaymen, because, by a 
wise system of government, Boyes made the tribes 
realise that the white man meant good to the country. 
He was not on the "staff" of the railway, although he 
did provide food, acting as a trader. Later on, how- 
ever, he was hauled before a court and tried with having 
illegally assumed governmental powers, but he was 
acquitted. 

The railway was driven on. It was at the Kikiyu 
Escarpment, nearly 8,000 feet high, that the engineers 
found themselves at the edge of a steep precipice, with 
the Great Rift Valley stretching before and 2,000 feet 
below them. 

It was a formidable barrier to progress, and 
necessitated much consultation amongst the engineers, 



282 The Boy's Book of Pioneers 

who, in order not to waste time, resolved to leave for a 
little while the business of connecting the line from the 
escarpment to the line to be laid along the valley, so a 
temporary " rope incline " being fixed up from the 
precipice, the work was able to go on in the rift while 
the engineers thought out a method of overcoming the 
difficulty. Something like five hundred feet below was 
a point from which the line could be continued — if it 
could only be reached. Now came ingenuity. In the 
sheer face of the precipice was cut a gentle down-grade 
track, just wide enough to take the rails; not merely a 
straight cut at that, but one with a tortuous course. It 
was a tremendous job, but at last it was finished, 
and what had seemed almost insurmountable was 
surmounted. 

The work went merrily from this point — if one can 
so describe work which is always full of danger and 
always beset by obstacles. Deep cuttings had to be 
made through undulating ground, ravines had to be 
spanned by steel bridges, and at the Mau Summit 
another tortuous course had to be cut ; but at one place 
only was a tunnel necessary, and this was less than 
170 yards long, to overcome a 4,700 feet drop along 
91 miles, and wide loops had to be made at various 
places, that at Lumbwa being the largest. 

So, fighting almost every natural obstacle Nature 
could put in their way, the engineers pushed on until 
the line was completed. Victoria Nyanza was reached : 
a commercial highway had been opened in British East 
Africa. It cost five and a half million pounds — nearly 
a million and a half more than had been estirnated, and 
this despite the fact that in the working the engineers 
had reduced the length of the line by a hundred miles 
by improving upon the route originally selected. 
Instead of being seven hundred, as anticipated, it is 
just under six hundred. 



The Railwayman as Pioneer 283 

What has the line meant to British East Africa? 
It has helped the march of civilisation, and has increased 
trade because, instead of four months' travelling being 
necessary to reach the Nyanza, as it was in the days of 
the explorers, the trip now only takes forty-eight 
hours I 



THE DISCOVERY OF THE POLES 

The Story of the Gallant Fight Against Nature at the 
Ends of the World 

THE story of Polar exploration is one of devotion 
and sacrifice. Into the white wastes of north and 
south men have ventured to wrest the last secrets of 
the world's surface; some have returned, and some have 
been swallowed up in the infinite loneliness. To tell all 
the story would demand a book, nay, many books to 
itself, and no greater story could be written than that. 
But here we cannot hope to do more than take two or 
three of the acts in the wonderful drama, and they shall 
be the successful ones, telling of men who blazed a 
trail across snow and ice to final victory, following in 
the footsteps of men less fortunate but no less 
courageous. 

For over twenty years, from the time when, in 1886, 
he reconnoitred about Greenland, to 1909, when he stood 
at the world's white end, Peary had been fighting to 
win through to the North Pole : a record of unswerving 
determination and unremitting zeal. After that Green- 
land cruise he went, in June, 1891, to the eastern side 
of M'Cormick Bay (lat. 78° 10' N., long. 69° W.), where 
he fixed up winter quarters with five others and Mrs. 
Peary. When the spring came he struck out across 
the ice-cap, Greenland, and after nearly four months of 
hard travelling came to the other side of Greenland, and 
found before him the Arctic Sea. Thus he proved 
the insularity of Greenland, one of his earliest 
geographical achievements. In 1893 he was once more 
back on the west coast of Greenland, making his head- 

284 



The Discovery of the Poles 285 

quarters near the Inglefield Gulf, whence, in the spring 
of the following year, he tried to cross once more the 
ice-cap of Greenland, striking for a more northerly 
point. But the elements proved unkind, and a plague 
amongst his dog teams upset all calculations, so that the 
attempt had to be given up. Peary returned to head- 
quarters, and in the August sent back to the United 
States all members of the party (including his wife and 
the daughter who had been born amidst the wild wastes 
of the north the previous September) except two of his 
men, with whom he stayed behind until the spring of 
1895 — a lonely sojourn in an inhospitable land. Then 
the three explorers essayed the ice-cap again, but failed 
once more; they could not locate the depot where, two 
years before, they had cached a fair amount of pro- 
visions, and had to return to headquarters — a sad dis- 
appointment, seeing that they were already about fifteen 
miles farther north than they had gone in 1893. 

His 1896-97 expedition was no more successful, yet 
the resolute man did not give up. In 1898 he went out 
again, and, after fighting against the big floes, he 
harboured at Allman Bay, 250 miles below the point 
where he had hoped to set up winter headquarters. 
Leaving the ship, the Windward, behind, Peary de- 
termined to push as far north as possible to establish a 
base from which to make the dash to the Pole in the 
spring, and with loaded sledges he and two fellow- 
Americans and a couple of Eskimos, drove through 
storm and snow for weary mile after weary mile ; glitter- 
ing ice-mountains barred the way at some places, and 
the men toiled hard in the long winter night cutting a 
way through with axes, shovels and picks, and when 
these were unavailing, blowing a path through with 
blasting powder. The fight with wild Nature took toll 
of the explorers. It was only when Fort Conger was 
reached that Peary gave up for a rest, compelled to do 



286 The Boy's Book of Pioneers 

so by the fact that both his feet were frostbitten to an 
alarming extent. The supplies they had allowed them- 
selves for the journey out failed, owing to the unex- 
pected difficulties of travelling, and at one place they 
had to kill a dog to furnish sorely needed food : no 
biscuits, no beans, were left. Six weeks Peary lay in 
agony at Fort Conger, and only the devotion and skill 
of the surgeon. Dr. Dedrick, saved him from losing his 
feet; even then seven of his toes were so bad that 
amputation was found to be necessary, an operation 
which was performed when the little party returned to 
the Windward, after a journey of 250 miles, during 
which Peary had to be hauled along, lashed to the 
sledge. 

As soon as he had recovered from the operation, 
Peary was up and out again, and after a good deal of 
geographical work, left headquarters for the dash to the 
north. By the beginning of May he had reached the 
point touched at by Lockwood in 1882, and then found 
that the way to the Pole was barred for that season by 
the broken icepack and the open sea. There was still 
work to be done, however, and Peary went round the 
northern coast of Hazenland, discovering a cape, to 
which he gave the name of Morris K. Jesup (in honour 
of the president of the Peary Arctic Club, which the 
explorer had founded). Then he went south-east until 
he reached 82° 10' N., 61° 30' W. This was the first 
journey round the northern end of the Greenland 
Archipelago, and Peary was content to a point, and 
that was that he had not given up hope of attaining the 
Pole. He spent the winter of 1900-1 in Grinnell Land, 
the camp being near Lake Hazen, going down in the 
spring to Cape Sabine to rejoin the Windward, on 
board which Mrs. Peary and her daughter had been 
living while the vessel was ice-bound throughout the 
winter. 



The Discovery of the Poles 287 

Then, in February, 1902, Peary, with one of his 
men and a few natives, made a dash northwards, picked 
up provisions at Fort Conger, intending to push on to 
the Pole from Cape Hecla. Failure again. Nature said 
"No," and back to Cape Sabine went Peary, after 
having touched 84° 17'. Still, what he had accom- 
plished in getting so far north made him the idol of 
America, so that when, in 1905, he set out In the 
Roosevelt, the first American vessel built for Arctic 
exploration, hope was high that he would succeed in 
reaching the Pole. 

The Roosevelt wintered at Cape Sheridan, on the 
north coast of Grant Land. During this winter sojourn 
Peary was faced with what seemed likely to bring about 
the failure of the expedition : some mysterious disease 
seized upon the Eskimo dogs, and eighty of them died 
before it was discovered that they were poisoned by 
the whale-meat. 

With various adventures and annoying happenings 
the explorers spent the winter, and, when spring arrived, 
prepared to set out for Cape Hecla, the starting point 
for the dash. Peary divided his party into several 
sections, each to go about fifty miles at a stretch. 
When the first section reached its limit, "the sledges 
assigned to this section would transfer their loads to the 
other sledges, depositing any surplus in a cache, then 
return, reload, and go out again to the end of the 
section, and continue to repeat this operation. At the 
end of the second section the sledges of this section 
would return to the northern end of the first section, 
and taking over there the loads brought up by the 
sledges of the first section, again turn northward." 

Such was Peary's scheme, and he felt certain of 
success, but after a very stiff journey against gales and 
obstructed by open water, he found himself cut off 
from his supporting parties. He made up his mind to 



288 The Boy's Book of Pioneers 

risk the dash northwards with his own section of eight, 
and, sacrificing everything that was not absolutely- 
necessary, hurried northwards, killing for dog-food the 
animals which could go no farther, and battling all the 
time against storms and snowdrifts and pressure ridges. 
But there is an end to human endurance, and the time 
came when Peary knew that he was once more beaten 
by the white north ; the ice would not allow him to go 
any farther, yet he had reached the then " Farthest 
North" (87° 6'). 

The way back was beset with as great difficulties as 
the outward journey had been, ice was insecure, food 
was scarce, but eventually Peary reached the Roosevelt, 
at the end of July, and went back to the States a dis- 
appointed but not downhearted man ; he was going out 
again ; and he did — this time to victory. 

He wintered at Cape Sheridan during 1908-9, and 
in February went north from headquarters with seven 
comrades, seventeen Eskimos, thirty-three dogs and 
nineteen sledges, adopting the relay system. After 
passing the 88th parallel, Peary, accompanied by five 
Eskimos, and with forty days' supplies, set out for the 
last dash, and after experiencing most of the trials of 
the Arctic explorer, and having spared neither himself, 
his Eskimos, nor his dogs, he reached the consumma- 
tion of all his hopes ; and it had been far easier to win 
than it had ever been to fail I 

On that April day — it was the 6th — Peary stood at 
the North Pole, a happy man, who had earned success 
by labours extending over nearly a quarter of a century. 
He made as many observations as he could with the 
limited time at his disposal. When he returned to 
civilisation it was to find that another man had tried to 
rob him of the fruits of all his work ! A week before 
Peary had sent the news from the wild north that he had 
reached the Pole at last. Dr. Cook had claimed that on 



The Discovery of the roles 289 

April 21, 1908 — a year before Peary — he had reached 
the North Pole ! 

We need not go into that controversy ; indeed, it is 
no longer a controversy. The men who know hailed 
Peary as the conqueror of the North. Peary, and Peary 
alone, had been the first man to reach the Pole, and no 
one ever doubted his word or cast doubt upon his 
records, which were as clear as the day. 

Thus, after four centuries of questing, the North 
Pole had been discovered. Men had given their health, 
their lives ; nations had competed for it ; and the Stars 
and Stripes had won, and no living man of all those 
who had attempted the conquest envied Peary his 
triumph ; the man who had followed in the footsteps 
of Parry, of Nares, of Markham, Nansen, Cagni and 
a host of others. 

While the North Pole had yielded up its secret the 
South Pole still hugged its own to its icy bosom. 
Portuguese and Dutch and French had gone south 
in the fifteenth and succeeding centuries; Captain 
Cook had explored the southern seas and crossed 
the Antarctic Circle in 1774, as Bellinghausen had 
done in 1820, discovering Peter I. Island and 
Alexander I. Island; and in 1823 Weddell had 
penetrated three degrees farther south than Cook, 
and the sea which he reached is now mapped in his 
name. Biscoe, Balleny (whose expedition came to a 
sad and tragic end), d'Urville, Wilkes, Ross, Nares (in 
the Challenger, the first steamship to cross the Circle), 
Nordenskjold — such are a few of the men who preceded 
the conquerors of the frozen south, to whose triumphant 
expeditions we must now turn. 

Following the expedition of Captain Scott in 1901-4 
in the Discovery, which was imprisoned in the ice for 
two years, while the explorer made a gallant dash for the 
Pole, only to be turned back by the adverse conditions 

T 



290 The Boy's Book of Pioneers 

after a fearful journey, and Shackleton's "Farthest 
South " in 1907-9 (82° 18^')— a wonderful march across 
the ice wastes — there came in 191 1 a race to the Pole 
between two expeditions. Both were destined to reach 
the goal within a few weeks of each other, but one 
was to return triumphant, and the other was to sacrifice 
itself upon the altar of man's desire for knowledge. 

The Norwegian, Amundsen, won and returned. 
Captain Scott got there and died when within a few 
miles of succour; and while Amundsen had had almost 
a holiday trip across the wastes, Scott had all along 
been dogged by misfortune. Every calculation, based 
upon the most minute data available, had been taken 
by Scott, but Nature had stepped in and upset every- 
thing. 

When Amundsen was ready to start on an explora- 
tion to the North Pole the news came of Peary's 
success, and the Norwegian changed his mind and went 
south instead of north. He kept his intention secret 
from the world — not even telling his crew until his ship, 
the Fram, was well on her way. Like Scott, Amundsen 
made for Ross Sea, but while the former fixed his head- 
quarters at McMurdo Sound, the latter wintered at the 
Bay of Whales. The following February, Scott, in the 
Terra Nova, came across the Fram, and gained his first 
inkling that there was a rival expedition in the field. A 
weaker man than Scott would have started before the 
time he had intended, but the Britisher did not. He 
did not intend to enter into a race which might 
have disastrous results if he altered his well-laid plans. 

So Amundsen set off on October 20, 191 1, with five 
men, fifty-two dogs, and four sledges, and although the 
way was not without incident — there was an occasional 
blizzard, there were the crevasses to be crossed, and so 
on — everything went smoothly, so smoothly that the 
750 miles were covered at an average of thirteen per day 



The Discovery of the Poles 291 

during the seven weeks of travelling. Then, on 
December 14 the Pole was reached. That day had been 
spent like the others, in pushing on and on, with the 
thought ever present in the minds of the explorers that 
perhaps the Scott expedition had forestalled them ; even 
as Scott was when, at the end of his outward journey, 
he was troubled as to whether the Norwegians had 
wrested the prize from him. 

"Were we first," wrote Amundsen, "or- — 
' Halt 1 ' It sounded like a cry of exultation. The dis- 
tance was covered, the goal reached. Calm, so calm 
stretched the mighty plateau before us, unseen and un- 
seen and untrodden by the foot of man. No sign or 
mark in any direction I It was undeniably a moment 
of solemnity when all of us, with our hands on the 
flagstaff, planted the colours of our country on the 
geographical South Pole, on King Haakon VII. 
Plateau." 

The South Pole was discovered. 

And while Scott was labouring towards the goal, the 
Norwegians were camping about the spot. After 
making various observations and caching a letter 
addressed to King Haakon, which was to be brought 
back by whoever next reached the Pole, they set off on 
the return journey, a little tent and the flag being left 
as evidence of their success. 

The expedition which was led by Captain Robert 
F. Scott was probably one of the best equipped ever 
sent to wrest its secrets from the frozen south. It 
consisted of sixty men, every one chosen because of his 
efficiency in some particular sphere. Many of them 
were scientists of note, because Scott's idea was not 
merely to discover the South Pole, but also, on the way, 
and while at the end of the world, to make observations 
which would help to solve many scientific problems. 
The Terra Nova, on which the expedition sailed, left 



292 The Boy's Book of Pioneers 

New Zealand on November 26, 1910, and early the fol- 
lowing January was at the Great Ice Barrier, a landing 
being effected under great difficulty, and a hut erected. 
It was an elaborate affair, this hut that was to be the 
home of the exiles through the long winter night of the 
south : it was built of wood, and was 50 feet long by 
25 feet wide, and nine feet to the eaves. There were 
officers' and men's quarters; there was a dark room, a 
workshop, a galley and a laboratory. Proper heating 
apparatus was installed, stables were built on the north 
side, and a storeroom on the south. To help beguile 
the time of tedious waiting, a gramophone and a pianola 
were brought, and Mr. Ponting, the photographer, had 
his lantern, which provided many an hour's entertain- 
ment to the explorers. 

At Hut Point, where Scott had wintered on his 
previous journey to the south, some of the party were 
installed, and telephonic communication was established 
with the chief station. 

Before the winter set in there was a good deal of 
work to be done, with which we cannot here deal, except 
to mention one very important task, namely, the laying 
of a depot some hundred miles south, on the road to be 
traversed on the dash to the Pole. That trip across the 
Ice Barrier was dangerous and difficult, and when it was 
accomplished it was time to take to winter quarters. 
No idling, however, even then ; there were scientific 
observations of the neighbourhood round the station, 
and there were preparations to be made against the time 
when a start south was to be made, which was on 
October 24. On that day two motor-sledges (there had 
been three, but one of them was lost in the early days, 
and this loss was a great blow to the explorers) were 
dispatched. There was great excitement, for things 
did not go well at the beginning, and it was some time 
before the motors would run smoothly; but at last 



The Discovery of the Poles 293 

— Captain Evans and Day in charge of one, and Lashly 
of the other — they were off. 

On the 26th, Hut Point 'phoned up to say that the 
motors were in trouble, and Scott and several men went 
off to see what they could do. They found the motors 
stuck up about three miles from Hut Point, but matters 
were soon put right, and the sledges started off again, 
Scott and his party returning to Cape Evans to get 
ready for their own journey south. 

It was on November i that the Southern Party set 
out, and the night before Scott wrote : 

"The future is in the lap of the gods; I can think 
of nothing left undone to deserve success." 

The party consisted of ten men in charge of ten 
ponies drawing sledges, and two men leading the dogs 
which were to take the place of the ponies when the 
latter were done up. The company arrived at Hut 
Point, the first stopping place, quite safely. From 
there they pushed on again in three relays, the slowest 
starting first, and the others following at intervals 
which enabled all to arrive at the end of the day's 
journey at the same time. 

The motor party going on in front were throwing 
up cairns, and on the journey, when he had made One 
Ton Depot, Scott had placed landmarks to guide 
them. 

The first bit of bad luck came on the 4th, when Scott 
found the disabled sledge worked by Captain Evans and 
Day. A cylinder had gone wrong, and the motor had 
had to be abandoned, the men going on with the other 
sledge, which was to push as far beyond One Ton 
Depot as possible. One Ton Depot was reached after a 
dash across rough surfaces and through blizzards; 
there was trouble with the ponies, who had to be pro- 
tected by big snow walls at camp after a long and hard 
night's toil. Night was chosen for travelling, because 



294 The Boy's Book of Pioneers 

they thus escaped the sun, which was sufficient to make 
them sweat as they forced their way over the terrible 
ground, only ten miles of which were covered per 
night I On November 21 the motor party commanded 
by Evans was picked up, after waiting six days, unable 
to go farther. 

The united band now pushed forward again, and on 
the 24th the first supporting party, consisting of Day 
and Hooper, was sent back to the base. On the 26th a 
depot was laid, and called Middle Barrier Depot, and 
on the 28th, when ninety miles from the Beardmore 
Glacier, the second pony was shot and the dogs were 
fed upon it. Food was badly needed, for there was 
only enough food for the dogs for seven marches. As 
Scott relied upon the ponies taking him to the foot of 
the glaciers, the need for food for these plucky animals 
will be understood. 

Another depot was laid on December 18, and this 
lightened the load. Even then, however, the going was 
stiff, for they were opposed by furious blizzards, which 
swept down upon them, and made the work difficult. 
One blizzard, indeed, held them up for four days, and 
during that time food and fuel were being consumed 
without any progress being made. This was perhaps 
the most serious aspect of all, and yet to go on would 
be to court death. 

So long were they delayed that they had to begin 
on the rations that they had hoped would not be wanted 
until the summit of the glacier was reached. At last, 
however, the blizzard died down, and the party were 
able to set out again. Each day the ponies grew weaker, 
and on the 9th all these were shot at the camp, which 
they named the Shambles. 

Now the dogs hauled the sledges, and the cold, 
weary men began the ascent of the Beardmore Glacier, 
whose summit towered thousands of feet above them. 



The Discovery of the Poles 295 

Atkinson and Meares left for the base on the nth, and 
the others plunged forward and upward. Occasionally 
they would have to go down to avoid a dangerous spot, 
but gradually they toiled up the glacier. Always there 
was the danger of tumbling into crevasses or of sinking 
into soft snow. By the 22nd, when another supporting 
party left, 7,100 feet had been climbed (the day before 
they had been up 8,000 feet, which indicates the up- 
and-down work necessary to make progress). A heavy 
mist now enveloped them, and held them up for several 
precious hours. 

When they started again on the 22nd, eight men 
only remained, and they toiled on day after day, never 
stopping unless compelled, making a depot on Decem- 
ber 31, and sending back three more men on January 4. 
Scott, Captain Oates, Petty Officer Evans, Dr. Wilson, 
and Lieutenant Bowers were left to make the great dash 
to the Pole, with about a month's rations, which they 
considered ample to do the 150 miles that separated 
them from the goal of their ambitions and to enable 
them to get back to the nearest depot. 

The twelve-foot sledges had been sent back, and the 
small ten-foot sledges were used, because the dogs had 
now gone, and the pulling had to be done by the men 
themselves. They left their skis behind on the 7th 
because of the difficult surface, but it became much 
easier, and they went back for the skis. This delayed 
them some time, which they could ill afford. 

They were now on the summit ; here a blizzard held 
them up, and it was the 9th before they could set off 
across the great Polar plateau. Stores were once more 
cached on the loth, and the lightening of the loads was 
helpful, but the pulling was so difficult that on the nth, 
when seventy-four miles from the Pole, Scott asked 
himself whether they could keep up the struggle for 
another seven days ! " Never had men worked so hard 



296 The Boy's Book of Pioneers 

at so monotonous a task ; winds blew upon them, clouds 
worried them because they knew not what might come 
in their wake ; snow was falling and covering the track 
behind them, sufficient to cause them some anxiety, for 
they wanted that track to lead them home again, via 
their depots, upon which safety depended. 

" The weather ! Day by day the weather worried 
them ; only that could baulk them in their purpose, and 
never men prayed so much for fine days as did these. 
The i6th found them still forcing their way onward, 
with lightened loads again, having left a depot on the 
previous day, consisting of four days' food; and they 
knew that they were now only two good marches from 
the Pole. Considering they carried with them nine 
days' rations, while just behind lay another four days, 
they felt that all would be well if the weather would 
but keep clear for them." 

Then, on the i6th, something happened. In the dis- 
tance there loomed a tiny black speck, which was out of 
all keeping with the dreary prospect. The explorers 
speculated amongst themselves as to what it could be; 
and the problem was solved when they reached the 
spot. It was a black flag, tied to a sledge bearer. And 
the meaning of it ? 

It was the flag set up by Amundsen, who had fore- 
stalled the British in the race to the Pole ! 

"It is a terrible disappointment," Scott wrote in his 
diary, "and I am very sorry for my loyal companions. 
Many thoughts come and much discussion have we had. 
To-morrow we must march on to the Pole, and then 
hasten home with the utmost speed we can compass. 
All the day dreams must go; it will be a wearisome 
return." 

Next day, when the Pole was reached, Scott wrote 
in his diary words that spring out : 

*' Good God 1 This is an awiFul place, and terrible 



The Discovery of the Poles 297 

enough for us to have laboured to it without the reward 
of priority. . . ." 

There is no need to dilate upon the disappointment 
which the explorers experienced; any goal that is 
obtained too late is a disappointment to the man who 
has striven. 

But Scott was a man who knew how to play the 
game ; he had played — and lost — and yet he did not 
grudge the Norwegian the victory. They had been 
striving for the same prize — and one was bound to 
lose ; and whoever won would have done a great service 
to the cause of science. 

The "poor slighted Union Jack," as Scott called it, 
was fixed up, and then the explorers turned back to 
retrace their footsteps over the plateau, then down the 
great glacier. The weather daily became more severe, 
and the men now began to show signs of their her- 
culean efforts. Oates and Evans were overcome with 
weariness; Evans had his nose and fingers frostbitten, 
and suffered much agony ; and, when descending the 
glacier, he fell among rough ice, which injured his 
head, and gave him concussion of the brain. Dr. 
Wilson hurt his leg and suffered much from snow 
blindness. 

Time was everything; food depended on reaching 
the depots at the right times. Often the track was not 
easily found, and the anxiety of the travellers much 
increased. 

Evans, who had been the man on whom the party 
had looked for help in any circumstances, became 
almost helpless. On February 17, at the foot of the 
glacier, after a more than usually hard day's work, he 
was so far behind when camp was pitched that his 
friends became anxious and went to find him. When 
they found him, "he was on his knees, with clothing 
disarranged, hands uncovered and frostbitten, and a 



298 The Boy's Book of Pioneers 

wild look in liis eyes." They managed to get him to 
the tent, where he died that night, mourned by Scott, 
who had found him a useful, capable and indefatigable 
worker. 

Each succeeding day was now much like another to 
the four men left; they pushed onward, picking up 
their depots on the way, and suffering bitterly from the 
cold and the hard work. 

On March 16 Captain Oates went out. Frostbite had 
made life irksome for him, and he realised that he was 
a burden to the others, who without him could progress 
much quicker. 

" Go on without me," he had told them earlier in the 
day. "I'll keep in my sleeping bag." But when they 
prevailed upon him to keep on, he heroically forced 
himself to struggle forward till they camped at night. 
When in the morning he awoke, Scott wrote, "It was 
blowing a blizzard. He said : ' I'm just going outside, 
and may be some time.' He went out into the blizzard, 
and we have not seen him since. . . . We knew that 
poor Oates was walking to his death ; but though we 
tried to dissuade him, we knew it was the act of a brave 
man and an English gentleman." 

He had gone out to die so that, relieved of a 
burdensome and lagging companion, his friends might 
stand a better chance. ... A white man. . . . 

The little party of three now struggled on again for 
One Ton Depot. They had hoped to meet the dogs 
which were to fetch them back, but Cherry Garrard had 
been at One Ton Depot for six days, and had been held 
up with them by a blizzard. He had not enough food 
for the dogs to allow him to go south, and the state 
of the weather was such that if he had gone there was 
a danger that he might miss Scott. 

The explorers realised that their position was 
serious, and now none of them believed that they would 



The Discovery of the Poles 299 

ever get through. On March i8, when only twenty- 
one miles from the depot, the wind made them halt. 
Scott was suffering from indigestion, his right hand 
was frostbitten ; the party had only a half-fill of oil for 
the stove and a small amount of spirit left. When this 
was used up they would not be able to have any more 
hot drinks. 

Yet, despite their sufferings, after a rest they went 
on again, and on the 21st camped eleven miles from the 
depot. A blizzard was raging round them, there was 
little food, no fuel, and the explorers knew that next 
day they could not continue the journey; the end was 
at hand, and they were so near to succour ! 

Several days before this Scott and Bowers had made 
Wilson give them a drug which would enable them to 
put an end to their misery ; but they now resolved that 
they would die natural deaths; it should not be said 
of them that they "shirked." They remained at this 
camp, hoping against hope that the blizzard would 
cease or that from the north help would come. Every 
morning until the 29th they prepared to start for the 
depot, where food, and fuel, and warmth, and friends 
were waiting, but the blizzard howled about them, and 
seemed to cry " Nay " when they looked out as if to 
set forth. 

"We shall stick it out to the end," wrote Scott on 
the 29th, "but we are getting weaker, of course, and 
the end cannot be far. 

"It seems a pity, but I do not think I can write 
more. 

" For God's sake look after our people ! " 

They were found in the following November, these 
gallant gentlemen, who had died in the cause of 
science, in the tent, whose canvas flapped in the wind, 
with their precious papers, their bequest to mankind, 



300 The Boy's Book of Pioneers 

giving information of the character of the country on 
the way to the Pole and around it. 

Some men die for their country on the battlefield 
and gain honour ; others exile themselves from all they 
hold best in the hope of wresting from the old. earth 
some of the secrets she tries to keep hidden ; sometimes 
they fail, and come back; at other times it is success 
which ends in disaster. Such was this expedition of 
Scott and his noble companions ; they did what they set 
their hands to, and they laid down their lives on the 
snow wastes of the south, not through any failure 
of their own, but because Fate was against them. 
No men could have fought more gallantly than they did 
against adversity ; and surely no men ever died more 
nobly. ... 



EL DORADO 

How the Seekers of Gold have Pioneered for 
Civilisation 

THE queer thing about the discovery of gold, or, 
for that matter, other precious metals, in many parts 
of the world is that it has been the result of accident. 
Take the case of the gold mines of Sierra Nevada. There 
It happened that one day, in 1848, a sawmill owner 
named Marshal, desiring to get more power for his 
mill, put his wheel out of gear and allowed the water 
to rush through into the tail-race ; and the result was 
that the narrow channel below was widened by the 
force of the waters. Next morning, while he was walk- 
ing along the bank he saw a "clear, transparent stone, 
very common there, glittering on one of the spots laid 
bare by the sudden crumbling of the bank." He 
imagined it to be opal, and did not trouble to pick it 
up, but when he came across many similar pieces he 
stooped and picked up one bit — and discovered that it 
had a "thin scale of what appeared to be pure gold." 

Although he gathered several other pieces, and 
found them covered with gold, he wasn't a bit excited : 
he surmised that they were the relics of some hoard 
cached by an Indian tribe in the dim past ! Further 
examination, however, showed him that the soil round 
about was auriferous; then, without losing a moment, 
he mounted his horse and rode like the wind to the 
house of one of his neighbours. Captain Sutter, who, 
knowing more about such matters than Marshal, soon 
came to the conclusion that the undamming of the mill- 
stream had revealed soil worth looking after. 

301 



302 The Boy's Book of Pioneers 

Without saying a word to anyone, the two men 
delved and raked among the sand near the mill, went 
farther along the stream and poked about in the 
ravines ; wherever they looked there seemed to be gold. 

That fortunate happening at the mill-race led to 
the great gold rush to the Sierra Nevada. Marshal and 
Sutter had hoped to keep the matter quiet, but the 
workmen on the former's estate noticed the two men 
searching about and tracked them, with the result that 
very soon every man had given up saw-milling and was 
digging in the sand or washing out pans of the alluvial 
deposit. And when, in May of that year, a man strolled 
into San Francisco with twenty-three ounces of gold, 
things began to move. There was a stampede from San 
Francisco; very nearly every able-bodied man — and 
some who weren't I — packed up tools if he had them, 
bought at tremendous prices if he hadn't — and set off 
on the trail to the Americanos River, where the "find" 
had been made. They had been forestalled, however, 
these men from the coast town : a party of Mormons 
had crossed the Rockies and, reaching the Americanos, 
had begun working at once. The Sierras became the 
" Rome " to which all roads led : from San Francisco, 
from the east coast, from wherever lived men and heard 
of the diggings where fortunes were to be washed out 
of the river. Some journeyed round the Horn, some 
trekked it across the great continent — a three thousand- 
mile journey — some shipped down the east coast and 
then cut across the Panama Isthmus and so up to San 
Francisco, then to the diggings. In the very earliest 
days of the rush San Francisco was deserted : men left 
the work they were engaged upon — artisans, profes- 
sional men, shopkeepers. " Gone to the diggings " 
appeared on very nearly every house door, and the few 
folk who, either because they were too lazy or preferred 
to sleep in a bed, or because wise in their generation 



El Dorado 303 

stayed behind, reaped fortunes without troubling ; a man 
behind a counter could demand, and get, nearly three 
thousand dollars a year and his board ; a fellow in busi- 
ness made money hand over fist by selling necessaries 
or by dispensing from behind the saloon bar, or catering 
for the questionable pleasures of the gold-seekers. 

The way from San Franciso to the Sierras was filled 
with danger. There were Indians to be encountered, 
thirst to be suffered, long days of fighting against dust-- 
storms, or plodding along beneath a broiling sun and 
in the face of hot winds. Too often did it happen that 
a man who struck the trail alone perished on the way ; 
men banded themselves together, as a rule, when their 
impatience would allow them to wait for a fair number 
to gather. There would be mad races to the diggings 
— men doing their utmost to outwit their fellows; not 
seldom did it happen that the primeval passions of men 
broke out, and some unfortunate seeker of gold would 
be left behind, his quest over. 

While San Franciso was being denuded of its popu- 
lation, or becoming the half-way house to the diggings, 
on the banks of the Americanos a city was rising : a 
city of canvas to begin with, where the refuse of the 
world foregathered. Not that every seeker of gold was 
a ruffian — thousands of the men were fellows from 
various parts of the world who had set out to make 
fortunes that those they had left behind might live at 
ease and in comfort. But not everyone found what he 
sought, for, while some men garnered fortunes, others 
less lucky had to return ruined in body and mind and 
pocket; what little stores they had possessed having 
been expended fruitlessly. For at the diggings those 
who came unprepared found that traders with an eye 
to the main chance had brought up tools of every kind, 
which they sold at exorbitant prices, knowing that a 
man must have tools if he would have gold. 



304 The Boy's Book of Pioneers 

The diggings were no health resort. In summer 
the heat was terrific, in winter the rains torrential. 
Fever, dysentery, ague — these were some of the diseases 
always ravaging; men starved in one tent while in the 
next lay men dying with fortunes under their heads; 
while in the gambling hells that sprung up like mush- 
rooms men squandered thousands of pounds worth of 
gold-dust, gathered by hard work of weeks and months. 
Life was held cheap — cheaper than gold. 

"I took a stroll round the tents," writes a man who 
was in the rush ; " a most ominous silence prevailed ; of 
the busy crowds not one man was to be seen at work ; 
all was as still as a hospital. Sickness universally pre- 
vailed, seemingly as infectious as the plague. In every 
tent Jay sufferers in various stages of disease; out of 
two hundred at least twenty had died, and not more 
than sixty were able to move ; those convalescent would 
be seen gathered together in the stores. Those who 
were too ill to frequent scenes of dissipation excited 
my compassion; they lay huddled together in tens, 
moaning and cursing, many of them dying." 

And all this for gold ! 

But in that way was gold discovered and first 
gathered in the great Sierras; and such were the men 
who made fortunes and lost them ; some found fortunes 
and lost themselves. 

What happened in California may be said to be a 
picture of the gold rush in Australia in the early 'fifties ; 
and it is interesting to know that it was an Englishman 
from Australia who, having been prospecting in Cali- 
fornia, had noticed the similarity of country among the 
hills there and those in New South Wales, which led to 
the start of gold-mining in the latter country. 

That man was Edward Hammond Hargreaves. It 
is true that before he made this discovery gold had been 
found in different places in the new colonies down 



El Dorado 305 

south : a convict in New South Wales found a lump 
of gold which he was charged with having procured by 
melting down a watch he had stolen, and was severely 
punished; in the later 'thirties and the early 'forties 
auriferous soil was discovered near Sydney, but nothing 
was done because the Governor was afraid that if it 
became known there would be no end of trouble with 
the thousands of convicts in the settlement. Besides, 
the colonists were a pastoral people, whose prospects 
would be ruined if there was a rush of gold-seekers. 

When the news reached Australia of the gold find 
in California, however, many of her settlers packed up 
and shipped to the El Dorado ; some came back wealthy, 
others did not return at all, because they had no money 
left to pay their passage. But the gold fever caught 
on in New South Wales, and when Hargreaves offered 
to reveal gold the Government agreed because they 
feared the outflow of settlers. He went to work at Sum- 
merhill Creek, near Bathurst. He was successful, 
receiving ;^ 10,000 and a pension in reward. The dis- 
covery checked the emigration to California, and caused 
a gold rush from Sydney almost reminiscent of the 
desertion of San Francisco. The gully at Summerhill 
was alive with men, women and children — for whole 
families had left homes in the town, putting up tents, 
felling timber to run up rough shanties, pegging out 
claims, and frantically washing for gold. And not 
only from Sydney, but from Victoria did the gold- 
hunters come : so many, indeed, left the latter colony, 
which had only just secured its separation from New 
South Wales, that the Government became alarmed, 
and saw ruin staring them in the face. So they offered 
a reward to the man who discovered a paying gold- 
field near Melbourne, and the seekers were encouraged 
by the fact that there had been rumours in the past of 
the existence of gold in the colony, although nowhere 



3o6 The Boy's Book of Pioneers 

in- sufficient quantities to justify working. While the 
diggers were hard at work in New South Wales, seekers 
prospected about Victoria : gold was found in the 
Valley of Plenty, near Melbourne, and there was a 
rush. The yield soon petered out, however, and when 
a man named Hiscocks struck gold near the tiny town- 
ship of Buninyong, the disappointed diggers gathered 
their kits together and rushed to the new diggings, and 
before long 10,000 men were turning up the earth at 
what is now the town of Ballarat. Other deposits were 
hit upon at Bendigo Creek (now Sandhurst), at Mount 
Alexander (now Castlemaine), and the Ovens district. 

At every discovery the gold fever was heightened ; 
every type of man in the coast towns in Australia 
threw up his job and followed the lure. Property went 
down in an alarming degree ; labour was scarce, wages 
high; policemen deserted, the doctor threw up his prac- 
tice, the lawyer gave up the law for the shovel and 
washing "pan," the merchant closed his office, the 
sheep farmer left his farm. Everybody went prospect- 
ing, cutting a way through the virgin forest, across 
rocky mountains, squatting on the banks of the creeks 
and gullies, seeking the alluvial deposit. If a fellow 
was fortunate in his quest he worked hard as he could 
in order to get as much out of his find as possible before 
the news spread; for, so sure as it did, he knew he 
would have hundreds of diggers on his trail, and a 
miniature town would spring up overnight. 

When the news of the "breaking out of the gold" 
reached the outer world, what had happened in Cali- 
fornia happened in Australia : immigration increased, 
the new-comers simply passing through the ports into 
the interior. Men who had followed the rush to Cali- 
fornia returned, ex-convicts rolled in in their hundreds, 
sons of gentlemen in the Old Country came to make 
their fortunes — and lived to join the police. 



El Dorado 307 

For it was but natural that the gathering of so many 
different kinds of men should breed a certain lawless- 
ness in Australia, as it had in California, and the 
authorities soon saw that they must institute some sort 
of police force. Every gold camp had its gold com- 
missioner, some as many as four. The commissioner's 
camp was the symbol of law and order, and the police- 
troopers saw to it that law and order were kept. • 

In the commissioner's camp was the gold tent, filled 
with cedar boxes in which were deposited the surplus of 
the diggers' wealth. It was safe there, and it was not 
safe in the digger's own tent, as he knew. So he would 
bring up his gold in a bag, hand it over to the commis- 
sioner or his clerk, see it placed in one of the strong 
boxes, receive in exchange a receipt, and go away feel- 
ing that it was in good keeping. When the commis- 
sioner had collected a sufficient quantity of gold it 
would be sent down to Melbourne under escort, lest 
some of the lawless and less fortunate diggers should be 
tempted to "stick up" the carriers. In those days the 
roads were almost impassable, and packhorses were 
used to carry the gold down to the city, leather bags, 
locked in the middle by the commissioner, being slung 
over the pack saddles. And the policemen who formed 
the escort had amongst them a number of the better 
class who had found themselves unfitted for roughing 
it in the quest for gold, and had enlisted in the police 
force where the pay was good and the work none too 
hard. 

The Government of Victoria instituted a regular 
licensing system among the diggers : a man had to 
pay a fee of 30s. a month, afterwards increased to ;^3, 
before he could dig, and he had to have his licence 
with him always to show on demand. There was a 
good deal of dissatisfaction over this, and especially 
at the way in which the officials carried out their duties. 



3o8 The Boy's Book of Pioneers 

Men refused to take out licences, others refused to 
show them; there was a systematic "digger-hunting," 
resulting in many skirmishes with the police, and the 
affair finally terminated in the Eureka Stockade Re- 
bellion. There the diggers, led by Peter Lalor, barri- 
caded themselves and defied the Government. A force 
of soldiers and police attacked and carried the stockade 
after a stiff fight, and many prisoners were taken. This 
affair, it may be mentioned in passing, resulted in 
many reforms. A gold digger wrote that "When the 
torch of rebellion was finally extinguished reforms were 
immediately instituted in Victoria, and to the progres- 
sive measures then adopted may be distinctly traced the 
liberal legislation that followed in the other Colonies of 
the Australasian group. The way was paved for consti- 
tutional government ; manhood suffrage was estab- 
lished."* 

The discovery of gold in New South Wales and 
Victoria resulted in very important results for Aus- 
tralia, apart from the wealth that was obtained at the 
diggings : it opened up hitherto unknown parts of the 
continent, and called for roads to provide easy communi- 
cations; it also increased the population, not, unfortu- 
nately, by the arrival of only decent citizens, though 
in due course the undesirables were coped with. 

One could go on with the stories of the discovery of 
gold, of silver, of diamonds, copper and so forth, but 
there is no room here. Suffice it to say that the 
pioneers who opened up these new fields of industry 
did good service to the world : the diamonds of Kim- 
berley, the gold of Klondyke, the copper of Mexico, 
the silver of the Comstock Lode — all these have been to 
the world's benefit. 

* Set "The Boy's Book of Battles" (Cassell). 

Printed by Cassell & Company, Limited, La Bblli Sauvagb, London, E.G. 

F. 35.616 



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